I’m a senior literary agent at Liza Dawson Associates, with a list of clients writing science fiction and fantasy, nonfiction about abolition and social justice, and more.
I’ve sold over 100 books for my clients; handled film, audio, and merchandising deals; and provided career and strategic guidance to authors for over 10 years. I’m a passionate advocate and negotiator and a hands-on editorial agent. I love strategizing about ways to start or reboot successful publishing careers, helping authors develop and edit powerful stories, and diving into the details of contracts. It’s an honor to be entrusted with talented authors’ works.
My clients include:
Fiction
R.F. Kuang is the author of the #1 New York Times-bestselling hit Babel, which won the Nebula Award, New York Times bestseller Yellowface, and the explosive Poppy War trilogy, a thoroughly modern epic fantasy inspired by 20th-century Chinese history, which was nominated for the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards, and is published in 17 languages.
She won the 2020 Astounding Award for Best New Writer.
Pierce Brown is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Red Rising series. His work has been published in 33 languages and 35 territories. Over 2 million copies sold across the series.
“Ender, Katniss, and now Darrow.” —Scott Sigler
“A story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power…reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones.” —Kirkus, on Red Rising
“Brown writes layered, flawed characters…but plot is his most breathtaking strength…. Every action seems to flow into the next.”—NPR, on Golden Son
Kameron Hurley is an award-winning author of SFF and essayist. The Light Brigade was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Her essay “We Have Always Fought,” included in the Hugo-nominated collection The Geek Feminist Revolution, won her two 2014 Hugo Awards. She has won a Locus Award and the Kitschy Award for Best Debut Novel.
“Has the potential to become the next great Military SF classic”—Tor.com, on The Light Brigade
“In a universe where the word for spaceship is the same as for world, two women struggle to escape a perpetual war in this dystopic yet hopeful space opera..”—Publisher’s Weekly (starred), on The Stars Are Legion
Brian Staveley is the author of the popular epic fantasy series The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, in the vein of George R.R. Martin or N.K. Jemisin. His first novel, The Emperor’s Blades, won the 2015 David Gemmell Legend Morningstar Award for Best Debut Fantasy. His work has been sold in twelve territories.The Empire’s Ruin is the first book in a new series, set in the world of the Unhewn Throne.
“Pleasantly grim and emotionally complex.” ―Kirkus, on Skullsworn
H.G. Parry is the author of The Magician’s Daughter, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, following an English professor with the power to “read” literary characters into real life, and the Shadow Histories duology, set during the French Revolution, Haitian Revolution, and the fight for abolition in England. She has a Ph.D. in English literature and lives in New Zealand.
Foz Meadows is a queer Australian author, essayist, reviewer and poet. A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is the first book in her new fantasy series.
“Many a reader longing for a sense of homecoming in the realm of romantic fantasy will find it in A Strange and Stubborn Endurance.”—Jacqueline Carey, New York Times bestselling author of the Kushiel’s Legacy series
“A delicate meditation on trauma, loyalty, and trust… Meadows skillfully integrates gripping mystery and satisfying slow-burn romance. The result is sure to delight.”—Publishers Weekly
Ariel Kaplan is the author of The Pomegranate Gate, first in a lush fantasy trilogy inspired by Jewish mythology and set in a fictional Spain during the Inquisition (US: Erewhon Books; UK: Solaris/Rebellion), forthcoming in Summer 2023. She is also the author of three YA novels: Grendel’s Guide to Love and War, We Regret to Inform You, and We Are the Perfect Girl.
K.S. Villoso writes Filipino-inspired epic fantasy, including the Chronicles of the Wolf Queen, a trilogy beginning with The Wolf of Oren-Yaro.
“Readers will be swept in by this strong protagonist and stunning worldbuilding, with a plot full of questions and surprises. Villoso’s cunning, exciting debut is a new fantasy epic that readers will clamor for.”―Library Journal (starred review)
Ada Hoffmann is the author of The Outside and The Fallen, in a trilogy of mindbending science fiction in the vein of Ann Leckie with a Lovecraftian undertone. The Outside was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and Compton Crook Award. Hoffmann’s short fiction has been published in Strange Horizons, Asimov’s, and Uncanny, and in two year’s-best anthologies. She is the winner of the Friends of the Merrill Collection Short Story Contest and has been longlisted for the BSFA award.
Kelly Robson’s fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Tor.com, Clarkesworld Magazine, and elsewhere. She won the 2018 Nebula for her novelette A Human Stain, and the 2016 Aurora Award for the novella Waters of Versailles. She has also been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award, Theodore Sturgeon Award, Sunburst Award, and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her stories have appeared in many year’s best anthologies, and she is a regular columnist at Clarkesworld. She is the author of novellas Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach and High Times in the Low Parliament.
Tobias Buckell is a Caribbean-born New York Times-bestselling author of science fiction and fantasy. His fiction has been translated into eighteen languages. He has won the World Fantasy Award and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author.
Lina Rather‘s short fiction has appeared in venues including Lightspeed, Fireside Fiction, and Shimmer. Her novellas include Sisters of the Vast Black and Sisters of the Forsaken Stars.
Stina Leicht writes feminist science fiction, including Persephone Station and Loki’s Ring.
Elijah Kinch Spector is the author of Kalyna the Soothsayer, a thrilling tale in the vein of Spinning Silver and The Traitor Baru Cormorant following a young, brash “clairvoyant” con artist who must prophesize her way out of peril—and save her kingdom in the process.
John Appel is the author of Assassin’s Orbit, a space opera featuring a cast of kickass middle-aged women investigating a political assassination that spirals into a wider conspiracy involving the threat of mind-controlling nanotech not seen since the human exile from Lost Earth.
“A compelling, explosive debut.” ― Locus Magazine
Taran Hunt is the author of The Immortality Thief, a SF heist novel in the vein of Battlestar Galactica meets Ocean’s 11: a con man, an immortal alien, and a rebel soldier all seek the secret of eternal life on an ancient, decrepit spaceship full of booby traps, orbiting a dying star about to go supernova.
C. A. Higgins is the author of the highly acclaimed Lightless Trilogy.
“A perfect sci-fi entry point that matches a rich, character-driven story with fundamental questions about who we are and why we’re here.”—The Los Angeles Times
R.E. Stearns is the author of the Shieldrunner Pirates series: Barbary Station, Mutiny at Vesta, and Gravity of a Distant Sun.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam is a Nebula-nominated short fiction author, whose fiction and poetry has appeared in over 90 publications including Popular Science, Lightspeed, Uncanny, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fairy Tale Review, Hobart, and elsewhere, as well as in six languages. She is the author of Glorious Fiends,
Callie Bates is the author of the Waking Land trilogy.
John Wiswell is a Nebula-winning short fiction author, who has also been nominated for the Hugo, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. Current project: delightfully weird, queer horror/fantasy Someone You Can Build a Nest In.
Malka Older is the acclaimed author of the Centenal Cycle and forthcoming novella The Mimicking of Known Successes (Tordotcom).
Nonfiction
Dianna E. Anderson writes about queerness, feminism, and culture. They have been published in Rolling Stone, Cosmo, Bitch Magazine, Dame, and elsewhere. Their books include In Transit: Being Non-Binary in a World of Dichotomies.
Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law‘s book Prison by Any Other Name studies the insidious expansion of the carceral state through “alternatives” to prison like probation, electronic monitoring, and house arrest—and advocate for better forms of justice that provide true alternatives to incarceration.
“In this timely work‚ Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law offer us exciting new perspectives that reveal abolition to be the most reasonable path toward a just future.”—Angela Y. Davis, author of Are Prisons Obsolete?
Victoria Law is also the author of Prisons Make Us Safer, and 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration.
Lacino Hamilton is a writer, thinker, and activist, who wrote his influential essays during his 26 of incarceration due to a wrongful conviction. He was exonerated in September 2020. A collection of his prison letters will be published as In Spite of the Consequences: Prison Letters on Exoneration, Abolition, and Freedom.
Young Adult
Rosamund Hodge is the New York Times bestselling author of Cruel Beauty and other YA fantasy novels.
Farah Naz Rishi is a Pakistani-American Muslim writer and voice actor. She is the author of I Hope You Get This Message, It All Comes Back to You, and If You’re Not the One.
“Rishi brings nuance and freshness to the familiar You’ve Got Mail dynamic with desi Muslim teenagers in this deftly layered novel.” — Publishers Weekly on It All Comes Back to You
AdriAnne Strickland writes lush, dark YA fantasy with queer and polyamorous romance elements, including Beyond the Black Door and In the Ravenous Dark.
Becky Allen’s YA fantasy duology, Bound By Blood and Sand and Freed By Flame and Storm tells the story of an enslaved girl who discovers long-hidden magic and sparks a bloody revolution.