I seek projects that spark imagination and provoke thought & empathy
with an emphasis on gifted author/illustrators,
and evocative literary fiction and non-fiction for adults.

monaInk

Query Manager Open 07/05-08/05/26

Open to queries with an emphasis on gifted author/illustrators, literary fiction for adults, and thought provoking non-fiction with attention to craft.

July 05, 2026-August 05, 2026.

ABOUT

Inspired by art, ars* in its original sense, the practice of fitting pieces together, and animated by the idea that we find ourselves through the examination of the lives of others, we believe that writing and reading make us more fully human. In the context of our times, we aspire to have a public-minded soul.

*Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins: Ars comes from the Latin, from a base which means ‘to put together, join, or fit’.

After working as a developmental editor and literary agent, Mona founded her own agency to be a creative partner to original thinkers and creators and an advocate for imaginative, artistically ambitious books for adults and children—work that trusts readers, resists simplification, and holds value beyond the immediate demands of the marketplace.

Throughout her careers, she’s been drawn to the imaginative challenges of content creation. She spent 25 years designing, writing, and producing nonfiction media for broadcast, print, and the web. She became a producer through writing, helping to define audiences and shape messages for, among others, the Human Genome Project, Weston Woods, Discovery, and PBS. Her work received top national awards.

Education:
MSLS, Simmons
Simmons Center for the Study of Children’s Literature
Parsons School of Design

I’m Looking for the Next…

  • Picture Books
    Fireworks — Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Cátia Chien
    Girl on a Motorcycle — Amy Novesky, illustrated by Julie Morstad
    Hot Dog — written and illustrated by Doug Salati
    I Talk Like a River — Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith
    In a Jar — written and illustrated by Deborah Marcero
    Island Storm — Brian Floca, illustrated by Sydney Smith
    Little Doctor and the Fearless Beast — written and illustrated by Sophie Gilmore
    Little Witch Hazel — written and illustrated by Phoebe Wahl
    Milo Imagines the World — Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson
    Nina: A Story of Nina Simone — Traci N. Todd, illustrated by Christian Robinson
    The Tide Pool Waits — Candace Fleming, illustrated by Amy Hevron
    We All Play — written and illustrated by Julie Flett

    ...and Beyond
    All the Blues in the Sky — Renée Watson
    Brown Girl Dreaming — Jacqueline Woodson
    Everything Sad Is Untrue — Daniel Nayeri
    Pax — Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Jon Klassen
    The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale, written and illus. by Jon Klassen
    The Wild Robot — written and illustrated by Peter Brown
    When You Reach Me — Rebecca Stead

  • Fiction
    All Fours—Miranda July
    Audition — Katie Kitamura
    Creation Lake — Rachel Kushner
    Exit West — Mohsin Hamid
    James — Percival Everett
    Hamnet — Maggie O’Farrell
    Matrix — Lauren Groff
    The Memory Police — Yoko Ogawa
    On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous — Ocean Vuong
    Vladimir — Julia May Jonas
    The Wrong End of the Telescope — Rabih Alameddine
    Bread of Angels — Patti Smith
    An Immense World — Ed Yong
    Lab Girl — Hope Jahren
    Wildwood — Roger Deakin

  • Too many to count, but some selects:
    Anna Karenina & other Russian novels
    Bear—Marian Engel
    Beloved — Toni Morrison
    The Bookmaker’s Daughter — Shirley Abbott
    The Collected Poems of Mary Oliver
    Consolations — David Whyte
    Easy Beauty—Chloé Cooper Jones
    The Fire Next Time & Giovanni’s Room—James Baldwin
    In Search of Love and Beauty—Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
    Klara And the Sun—Kazuo Ishiguro
    A Poetry Handbook — Mary Oliver
    ‘Rain’a poem—William Carlos Williams
    Speak, Memory — Vladimir Nabokov
    The Wolf Hall trilogy — Hilary Mantel

  • A documentary for our times: The Librarians.

    Current television favorite: Sugar.
    A perennial favorite: Slow Horses.
    Filmmakers whose work I seek out include Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola,
    Guillermo del Toro, Greta Gerwig, and Spike Lee.

    I’m particularly drawn to films that capture the strangeness, intensity, and imaginative reality of childhood, including The Go-Between, Hope and Glory, Jojo Rabbit, The Last Emperor, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Roma.