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Agent Spotlight: Ameerah Holliday of Serendipity Literary Agency

For our final post of 2021, I’m delighted to introduce readers to Agent Ameerah Holliday from Serendipity Literary Agency.

Ameerah is a dancer and self-proclaimed poetess from San Diego, California. She received her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from San Diego State University and is a former editorial assistant intern for Poetry International. She currently serves as editorial director for the San Diego Poetry Annual and editor for Kids! San Diego Poetry Annual.

Here’s more about Serendipity, Ameerah, and what she’s looking for in the way of submissions.

Dorian: Welcome, Ameerah, to The Mixed-Up Files! Can you tell us a little bit about Serendipity Literary Agency and your role there?

Ameerah: Thanks so much for having me! Serendipity is a Black-owned literary agency with over 21 years in the industry. We represent everything from illustrators and board books up through adult nonfiction. Our president and lead agent Regina Brooks, is a phenomenon! She’s an author, an engineer, Vice President of the board of AALA (Association of American Literary Agents) . . . basically, she’s someone you want to know! Our team is very collaborative. We are constantly working together to make sure our clients receive our very best.

 

Dorian: Sounds fabulous! How have your experiences in dance and poetry influenced you and your desire to work in the publishing industry?

Ameerah: I love being involved in the arts! I’m the youngest in a large family and that tended to make me a pretty quiet kid, so I had to find new ways of expressing myself. Both dance and poetry helped me do that. One of the best things being a dancer taught me was how to take rejection and keep going. So often in performing you’re auditioning for a million things: companies, roles, solos, and so being told “no” just becomes a part of the game. The same thing can be said about publishing. Whether you’re querying or trying to sell a project you learn to just take the feedback and keep going. In working in publishing, one of my motivators has always been to look for stories or writers that may feel unseen and give them the spotlight. I’ve been a part of many ensembles in the past so I know how important everyone in the scene can be.

 

Dorian: Great insights! What middle-grade books inspired you as you were growing up?

Ameerah: My friends in school were really big readers, and it took me a while to warm up to books. Every now and then a teacher or a friend would recommend something to me and it would convince me that maybe they were on to something when it came to reading. My Granny gave me a copy of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume the moment I started middle school, which immediately taught me that I could learn through fiction. I read The Cheetah Girls by Deborah Gregory right before the movie came out, and I was obsessed! However, if I had to choose one that really sparked an interest in what books could do, it would probably be Holes by Louis Sachar. I read it for class one year, and I distinctly remember every day being extremely thirsty by the time I put it down. It was my first real experience of having a story really pull me into the experience of someone different from me.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorian: What are some of your favorite middle-grade books now?

Ameerah: There are so many amazing books out or getting ready to come out! I never tire of going to the library to pick things up. The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera was such an amazing take on sci-fi/fantasy with elements of culture and storytelling that I loved. Love Double Dutch by Doren Spicer-Dannelly had me regretting the fact that I never learned to double dutch growing up. Fast Pitch by Nic Stone is great. I love a story about kids taking charge and shaking the table. Also, JD and the Great Barber Battle by J. Dillard because who doesn’t love a young entrepreneur!

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorian: What genres, subjects, or themes would you be thrilled to receive?

Ameerah: I’m always open to taking a look at a story regardless of the genre. I am typically drawn in by intersectional and diverse experience or slice of life narratives. I’d love to see stories that highlight the trans and nonbinary experiences without being stemmed in trauma. In general, I love a good friendship story —  stories where a group of friends lean on each other to take on their worlds. I’m also a huge fan of the new Baby Sitters Club series on Netflix, diverse experiences of friends, and growing pains. I’d also love to see more about the awkward phase that comes with being a preteen, losing friends, changing schools, or simply that time of struggling to embrace the discomfort.

 

Dorian: Do you have any hobbies or special interests that you’d love to read about?

Ameerah: I’m always open to seeing stories that involve performing arts of any kind. I’m also big on community and cultural pride so, anything that gives you that feeling of a peek into someone’s life in their neighborhood or family.

 

Dorian: What changes do you think 2022 will bring in the way of children’s books?

Ameerah: What I love about the publishing community is that there is such a strong desire to expand our world and our understanding of who we are. Diversity comes in a range of topics now, and so many of them involve the celebration of being different. I think the children’s book space is a place where all of these ideas are still growing and evolving. I imagine 2022 will bring more BIPOC kids at the center of fantasy, neurodiversity in the experiences of characters (and authors), and joy, which we can always use more of.

 

Dorian: What tips do you have for writers ready to query an agent?

Ameerah: Make sure that your manuscript is the best it can be before you start to send it out. If that means taking a step back from it or calling on your friends and cousins for second reads then that’s okay. There’s never a rush when it comes to making sure you’re as confident as you can be in your work. Also, these things take time. If an agent doesn’t get back to you right away, it doesn’t automatically mean they aren’t interested. Publishing can be a waiting game sometimes so try to stay positive. You’ve got this!

 

Dorian: Great advice! Lastly, how can people follow you on social media and/or query you?

Ameerah: Our submissions portals are available through our website SerendipityLit.com. All of our agents are phenomenal but if you’re interested in submitting to someone specific just mention them in your query letter and it’s sure to get to the right person. You can follow us on all platforms @SerendipityLit.

Thanks so much for chatting with us, Ameerah. Wishing you lots of joy and good books in 2022!

Reading and Writing Resolutions for 2022

The new year is almost here, and it’s time for us at The Mixed-Up Files to share our reading and writing resolutions with you. We hope some of our aspirations will inspire you to make your own such resolutions. And we’d love to read about your hopes and dreams in the comments section so you can inspire us as well.

Here’s to a Happy New Year filled with joy and good reading!!

 

Andrea Pyros is the author of Pink Hair and Other Terrible Ideas and My Year of Epic Rock

Writing Resolution: “I am in the middle of writing two books. I’d like to finish first drafts of both in the next six months, which feels (I hope!) realistic and doable.”

Reading Resolution: “I feel guilty when I put a book aside instead of finishing it. I’m going to cut myself a break and stop if a book isn’t grabbing me after giving it a shot. Sometimes you’re the wrong reader at a particular moment, and that’s okay! It’s no fault of the book or the author, and there’s no shame in my saying, ‘Not right now’ if I can’t seem to finish something.”

 

Melissa Roske is the author of Kat Greene Comes Clean (Charlesbridge, 2017) and the short story “Grandma Merle’s Last Wish,” which will appear in the forthcoming Jewish middle-grade anthology, Coming of Age: 13 B’Nai Mitzvah Stories (Albert Whitman & Company, 4/19/22).

Writing Resolution: “In 2022, I vow to write every day, even if it’s just for ten minutes. The pandemic made sticking to a regular writing routine extremely challenging, but—to quote Gene Autry (and Aerosmith)—it’s time to get back in the saddle!”

 

 

Donna Galanti is the author of two middle grade series—Unicorn Island and Joshua and The Lightning Road.

Writing Resolution: “Since moving myself to a new area, my son to Hawaii, and my dad to assisted living this year—I completely lost my writing routine and motivation. My goal in 2022 is to find inspiration and order again. I want to create and follow through on a daily routine of writing that involves meditation, free writing, and crafting a new story close to my heart that involves autoimmune disorders. Also, as an added bonus, it would be a boost to complete two unfinished manuscripts.” 😊

Reading Resolution: “To read during the day—not just that fifteen minutes before I fall asleep! This mean setting aside focused, daily reading time to dive into more heartfelt, contemporary middle grade.”

 

Samantha M. Clark is the author of The Boy, The Boat, and The BeastArrow (Simon & Schuster) and American Horse Tales: Hollywood  (Penguin)

“2021 was a very busy year for me, and I didn’t have much time to stop and smell the roses. I want to make that time in 2022, to focus better, to relax better, and to read more. Reading more should always be a priority.”

 

 

 

Patricia Bailey is the author of The Tragically True Adventures of Kit Donovan.

“My reading and writing resolution for 2022 is the same—to be more playful.”

 

 

 

 

Mindy Alyse Weiss writes middle grade novels and picture books with humor, heart, and hope.

“My writing resolution is to write and/or revise something every day.”

 

Julie K. Rubini is the author of critically acclaimed biographies and recently served as the editor of Virginia Hamilton: Five Novels, published by the Library of America.

Writing Resolution: “I want to continue to be open to whatever opportunities the universe provides for my next writing projects. I’m hopeful that includes the sale of my latest proposal about an inspirational woman!”

 

 

 

Heather Murphy Capps’s debut novel, Indigo and Ida (Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab), will publish in spring of 2023. Capps is an upper MG author of color and is dedicated to supporting and creating equity in education and publishing.

Writing Resolution: “I am thrilled to be able to say for the first time that my resolution for 2022 is to complete edits on my debut novel by early spring, plus finish drafting my newest novel.”

Reading Resolution: “I have a TBR pile on my bedside table that is always threatening to topple from its sheer height. My resolution is to make a dent in that before buying new books. It’s very hard to resist the lure of the bookstore because so many fabulous books come out every year!”

 


Sue Cowing
is a poet and author of middle-grade fiction.

Writing Resolution: “To go to the page every day with deeper attention and joy.”

Reading Resolution: “My resolution is to be clear about what I really want to read and write, not what I should.”

 

 

 

Dorian Cirrone writes fiction and poetry for all ages. Her most recent novel is The First Last Day (S&S/Aladdin).

Writing resolution: “I’m almost finished with the book I vowed to finish last year. It’s been fighting me to be longer and more complex, so this year, it’s on!”

Reading resolution: “Keep reading widely but not beat myself up if I don’t want to read a particular genre.”

STEM Tuesday’s New Year’s Celebration 2021

STEM Tuesday’s New Year’s Celebration 2021

2021 is in the books. It was a strange kind of year. I heard it described best a few weeks back when my wife, who is a first-grade teacher, came home on a Friday night and said that the week in her classroom had been the slowest fast week in recent history. She said looking back, the previous weekend seemed like it just happened but the day-to-day timeline at school seemed to drag on and on and on. I get that. 

100%. 

That’s 2021 to the core. 

It seems like the STEM Tuesday team was just posting the 2020 year-end celebration posts, yet the month-to-month, week-to-week, day-to-day progression of 2021 seemed like crossing an ocean pedaling a paddleboat.

There were great things in the STEM world throughout 2021. Vaccines and their logistical rollout, fantastical feats on Mars, the James Webb telescope (fingers crossed for continued success!), giant leaps in making routine space travel a thing, and the advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence were noteworthy, if not a little scary.

All in all, 2021 was a good STEM year. 

I look for STEM 2022 to be just as awesome.

STEM Tuesday Theme for 2022

Start by knowing nothing and then ask the right questions.

I’m one of the luckiest people alive. I know this and appreciate it every day. One of the things I’m most grateful for is getting to see my grandkids almost every day. The past year has been particularly awesome as my oldest grandson turned three years old. We hang out a lot which means I get to experience the world in a whole new light through his fresh eyes. 

He’s noticing the world around him more and more. Shining a flashlight under a leaf while playing outside in the dark, gathering and counting cicada molts from the front porch, planting marigolds and vegetables in the garden, eating raspberries off the bush, and figuring out what projectiles can be successfully launched from grandma’s leaf blower. He’s also blessed with a curious mind so we get a lot of questions. 

Wonder and curiosity make a magical combination. I’ve been reminded of this throughout 2021. I think the magic of wonder and curiosity might be the number one thing the human race has lost as we wade into the digital age.

Wonder and curiosity. 

Gifts from the gods.

That’s where our 2022 STEM Tuesday theme is rooted. Wonder and curiosity. Start by knowing nothing and then ask the right questions.

Museum of Trinity College Dublin, Illustration in History of the University of Dublin (1819), William B. Sarsfield Taylor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Knowing nothing

In elementary school, they grouped our class into three divisions by levels. Group 1, 2, and 3. Although it was never outrightly expressed, every one of us knew these divisions were grouped according to level. I, for better or worse, was placed in Group 1. It was probably a coin flip of whether to put me into this group over the second group. I struggled to read. I was a left-hander in a right-handed world of parochial school. I was, without a doubt, the dumbest kid in the smart group. Right or wrong, the system was what it was in the 1970s.  The system and closed classroom environment had their consequences but at that moment, being the dumbest kid in the smart class did one thing to me. It made me feel dumb.

I had to scramble to keep up. While my classmates appeared to be leisurely strolling through the lush academic park, I was sprinting blindfolded through a dense academic forest constantly running headfirst into tree trunks. I don’t really know if this was a reality or just a version of reality that existed inside my head. It doesn’t matter because it permanently imprinted on my psyche even to this day. The default inside my head always starts with, “You know nothing, idiot.”

What may seem a curse (and at times, i.e. report card time, it was) being a default idiot inside my own head has turned into a blessing. First of all, I don’t like being an idiot. I didn’t like being the dumbest in the smart group. Not wanting to be an idiot, though, I had one choice, be curious and then do the work to satisfy that curiosity. 

So I learned to ask the right questions but, being an introvert, I mostly asked them inside my own head.

All the Right Questions

  • Are we there yet?
  • Is dinner ready?
  • Where’s the restroom?

No, just kidding. Although these questions are vital in my own mind, they aren’t really the three important Right Questions. Those are:

  • Why?
  • How?
  • What if?

Three good questions. Three questions that, as we start a new year, can help define the future us. We can use the Right Question to tell the story we want to tell. We can use the Right Questions to define the story of who we are and what we want to be. 

Tell the story

Being a scientist (molecular microbiologist) by trade, we incorporate the Right Questions all the time.

  • We make an observation and ask why it happened.
  • We attempt to define how it happened.
  • We investigate what happens to the observation if a variable in the original observation was changed. 

Science moves forward when we start by knowing nothing and then asking the right questions. Why? How? What if? The stories we want to tell also start in the same place with the same questions. They form the foundation of the story, give it color and life, and then point the way to what happens next.

One final thought. Recently, as the holidays approached, my grandson awarded everyone in the family a revered spot on The Nice List. I don’t know if this was because he was struck with holiday spirit or if he was normalizing his sometimes onerous behavior to keep himself permanently established within the parameters of The Nice List. Either way, I’m grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such a prestigious and rewarding company. 

He would like to extend an invitation to each one of you to hop aboard The Nice List. It’s a pretty cool place to be.

But, like all things worth having, The Nice List is a responsibility that requires work and effort.

Accept the challenge and do everything you can to live up to the honor.

Happy New Year! The STEM Tuesday team and the entire From the Mixed-Up Files…of Middle-Grade Authors family wish you and yours the very best in 2022. We appreciate your support more than you can ever imagine.

Have a safe and productive 2022!

Start by knowing nothing and then ask the right questions.

Illustration from Scenes of wonder and curiosity in California by James Mason Hutchings, 1870.