Jessica Berg

I’m a sucker for high-concept fiction with emotional teeth, and nonfiction that cracks open a hidden world.

Across genres, I’m drawn to stories about power, legacy, secrecy, and identity—especially when they come with unexpected structure, a touch of weird, or a sense of stakes you can feel in your gut. Give me literary craft with commercial bones. Give me something that moves.

In fiction, I’m especially excited by:
– Voicey thrillers, morally tangled crime, and atmospheric horror
– Queer stories with agency and emotional range
– Family drama, intergenerational tension, and women’s fiction with reinvention arcs
– Historical fiction (esp. wartime, espionage, or mythic retellings) with a fresh angle
– Speculative or lightly magical novels grounded in real emotional conflict
– Upmarket book club fiction that balances beauty and bite

On the nonfiction side, I gravitate toward:
– Narrative nonfiction with a journalistic or essayistic lens
– Military-adjacent or intelligence stories (especially from women and insiders)
– Cultural criticism, pop history, and women’s issues with urgency and clarity
– Food writing, especially when it intersects with grief, diaspora, or identity

Whether it’s a secret society in 1918, a messy queer protagonist in mid-reinvention, or a nonfiction book that blows open a world I thought I understood—I want work that dares to go there.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to https://querymanager.com/query/jessicaberg

We welcome submissions via Query Tracker. Please include a query letter and a one-page synopsis. We do not require pages with the initial submission but if interested in your project, we request the full manuscript. We aim to respond within 12 weeks. Due to the nature of submissions we receive, we regret we cannot provide personalized feedback at this time due to the high volume of submissions we receive.

Guidelines & Details