Miriam Altshuler began her career at Russell & Volkening, where she worked for twelve years with such writers as Anne Tyler, Eudora Welty, Joseph Campbell, Nadine Gordimer, and Bernard Malamud. In 1994 she established her own agency, which she ran for twenty-one years until she joined DeFiore and Company in 2016.
Miriam specializes in adult literary and book club fiction, narrative nonfiction, and books for children. She is particularly interested in finding emerging and underrepresented voices, and she loves reading and representing books that focus on diversity and explore the experiences of BIPOC people.
First and foremost, she responds to voice and stories that are character-driven. She searches for books that draw her in and give her a new perspective on a world she doesn’t know, or make her think more deeply about a world she does know. Miriam seeks books with a heart and writers with wonderful storytelling abilities.
In fiction, she is most interested in family sagas, historical novels, and stories that offer a new twist or retelling of some kind. She does not work with adult romance, sci fi, or fantasy.
In nonfiction, she loves memoir, narrative nonfiction, and self-help (as long as it is not highly prescriptive). She particularly responds to books that have an important cultural, social, or psychological focus.
For children’s books, she focuses primarily on YA and middle grade, and her tastes vary broadly in those areas. It always comes back to the voice and the heart of a story for her.
Nonfiction Highlights:
- Elizabeth Rosner (SURVIVOR CAFÉ: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory)
- Marja Mills (New York Times bestselling THE MOCKINGBIRD NEXT DOOR: Life With Harper Lee)
- Wednesday Martin (New York Times bestselling PRIMATES OF PARK AVENUE: A Memoir)
- Dr. Sue Johnson (HOLD ME TIGHT: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love; LOVE SENSE: The Revolutionary New Science of Romantic Relationships; CREATED FOR CONNECTION: The "Hold Me Tight" Guide for Christian Couples)
- Harriet Brown (SHADOW DAUGHTER: A Memoir of Estrangement and Reckoning; BODY OF TRUTH: Change Your Life by Changing the Way You Think About Weight and Health; BRAVE GIRL EATING: A Family's Struggle With Anorexia)
- Donna Freitas (CONSENT: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention; CONSENT ON CAMPUS: A Manifesto; THE HAPPINESS EFFECT: How Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost; THE END OF SEX: How Hookup Culture is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy; SEX & THE SOUL: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America’s College Campuses)
- Arlene Stein (UNBOUND: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity)
- Dr. Molly Millwood (TO HAVE AND TO HOLD: Motherhood, Marriage, and the Modern Dilemma)
- Andrew Carroll (MY FELLOW SOLDIERS: General John Pershing and the Americans Who Helped Win the Great War; New York Times bestselling WAR LETTERS: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars; HERE IS WHERE: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History; OPERATION HOMECOMING; BEHIND THE LINES)
- Dr. Craig Malkin (RETHINKING NARCISSISM: The Bad--and Surprising Good--About Feeling Special)
- Adina Hoffman (BEN HECHT: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures; TILL WE HAVE BUILT JERUSALEM: Architects of a New City; SACRED TRASH: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza; MY HAPPINESS BEARS NO RELATION TO HAPPINESS: A Poet's Life in the Palestinian Century)
- Phil Zuckerman (WHAT IT MEANS TO BE MORAL; LIVING THE SECULAR LIFE: New Answers to Old Questions)
- Maya Lang (WHAT WE CARRY: A Memoir)
Fiction Highlights:
- Jill Santopolo (New York Times bestselling and Reese's Book Club pick THE LIGHT WE LOST; MORE THAN WORDS; EVERYTHING AFTER)
- Donna Freitas (THE NINE LIVES OF ROSE NAPOLITANO)
- Robb Forman Dew (National Book Award winner DALE LOVES SOPHIE TO DEATH; THE EVIDENCE AGAINST HER; THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER; BEING POLITE TO HITLER)
- Elizabeth Rosner (ELECTRIC CITY)
- Maya Lang (THE SIXTEENTH OF JUNE)
- George Lerner (THE AMBASSADORS)
- Alice Lichtenstein (LOST)
- Douglas Trevor (THE BOOK OF WONDERS; GIRLS I KNOW; A THIN TEAR IN THE FABRIC OF SPACE)
- Jennifer Murphy (the forthcoming SCARLET IN BLUE)
Children's Highlights
- Walter Dean Myers, former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature (MONSTER; FALLEN ANGELS; SUNRISE OVER FALLUJAH; ON A CLEAR DAY; DARIUS & TWIG; BAD BOY; HANDBOOK FOR BOYS; GAME; WE ARE AMERICA; FREDERICK DOUGLASS)
- Leslie Connor (THE TRUTH AS TOLD BY MASON BUTTLE; A HOME FOR GODDESSES AND DOGS)
- Ted Sanders (The Keepers series: THE BOX AND THE DRAGONFLY, THE HARP AND THE RAVENVINE, THE PORTAL AND THE VEIL, THE STARLIT FORGE)
- Donna Freitas (THE HEALER; UNPLUGGED; THE BODY MARKET; THE MIND VIRUS; THE TENDERNESS OF THIEVES; THE SURVIVAL KIT; THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD; THIS GORGEOUS GAME; GOLD MEDAL SUMMER; GOLD MEDAL WINTER)
- Tod Olson (LOST series: LOST IN THE PACIFIC, LOST IN OUTER SPACE, LOST IN THE AMAZON; LOST IN THE ANTARCTIC; INTO THE CLOUDS: The Race to Climb the World's Most Dangerous Mountain)
- Alex Sanchez (YOU BROUGHT ME THE OCEAN; THE GREATEST SUPERPOWER; RAINBOW BOYS, RAINBOW HIGH, and RAINBOW ROAD; GIRLFRIENDS WITH BOYFRIENDS; BAIT; THE GOD BOX; SO HARD TO SAY)
- Charles R. Smith (28 DAYS: Moments in Black History That Changed the World; BRICK BY BRICK; I AM THE WORLD)
- Kathryn Siebel (THE TROUBLE WITH TWINS; THE HAUNTING OF HENRY DAVIS)
- Jill Santopolo (SPARKLE SPA series)
- Christine Kendall (RIDING CHANCE; THE TRUE DEFINITION OF NEVA BEANE)
- Jenny Fran Davis (EVERYTHING MUST GO)
How to Submit to Miriam Altshuler:
PLEASE NOTE: For all subsidiary rights and permission inquiries, please contact Miriam at miriam@defliterary.com
For all manuscript queries, please send an email to her at querymiriam@defliterary.com. Miriam only accepts email queries. Include the following:
- A brief description of your book
- A brief, relevant bio
- The first chapter pasted in the body of your email. Attachments will not be opened.
- I also really want to know what you feel the heart of your book is, in one or two sentences.
