Alexandra Levick is a senior literary agent at Writers House whose deal record reveals one of publishing's most active picture book lists, while her YA roster boasts multiple award-winners and foreign-rights juggernauts — with adult genre fiction representing a deliberate growth frontier.
In brief
Her deal record is dominated by picture books and middle grade — she has sold dozens of illustrated titles across every major imprint — but her stated ambitions clearly extend into YA and adult speculative/genre fiction, where she has also landed notable deals.
The sales list confirms deep, ongoing relationships with several illustrators and author-clients: Sarah Gonzales, Lorraine Nam, Abhi Alwar, Monica Arnaldo, and Steph Lau each appear on multiple confirmed deals, signaling that she builds long-term careers, not one-off placements.
Her YA list punches hard on awards and international rights: Sonora Reyes's debut earned a Lambda Literary Award, a National Book Award Finalist nod, and a Pura Belpró Honor, and sold to more than ten foreign markets; Zoulfa Katouh's As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow sold to roughly 30 territories and became an international bestseller, underscoring her ability to build global careers.
Her publisher relationships are broad but skew toward HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and their imprints — Balzer+Bray, Viking Children's, HarperCollins, Knopf BFYR, and Kokila all appear repeatedly — suggesting strong footing at those houses specifically.
She is CLOSED to new queries as of April 1, 2026, and has signaled she hopes to reopen; writers should confirm her live status before submitting anything.
Lately
Query update as of July 1, 2026: I open to queries on the 1st of each month (12:01am ET) and close to queries on the 7th of each month (11:59pm ET). If you send a query outside of this window, your work will unfortunately be deleted unread. Thank you for understanding.
Hey #amquerying, I’m planning a new strategy in hopes it is more sustainable. I’ll open to queries on the first of the month and close on the seventh. I will be starting this July 1.
I’m now CLOSED to unsolicited queries. I’ll be reviewing everything already in my queue and will hope to reopen again soon.
On April 1 I will be closing to queries for at least a couple of weeks just to catch up on what is already in my queue. If you’re hoping to send something feel free to get it in before Wednesday!
Re: #Querying: I do not accept AI generated material. It is an automatic pass. Please don’t send this work to me.
Levick announced she is closing her query inbox to work through her existing submission pile, expressing hope to reopen once she has cleared the backlog.
I honestly hate to say this, but I do think sticking to the standard query formula is helpful — workflow-wise it's just more useful to know exactly what I can expect and which boxes you're ticking. When people get too creative in their formatting it really just trips me up rather than getting me excited. For instance, when people write queries from the point of view of their main character, more often than not I'm confused about who's writing me. And often those very creatively formatted queries are actually missing the meaty aspects I'm looking for — the who, what, why, how, et cetera.
My biggest pet peeve is sending multiple projects all at once — I've gotten ten to fifteen emails in a row from the same person, which is just not okay. The other big one is not taking the time to research what I'm looking for. I get books about crime fairly often, and I am really the last person you want reading that book — I will not be your best advocate for it. It bothers me when people don't respect my time, because they're not only wasting mine but their own. Querying is so hard and takes so much energy, so the best thing you can do is do the research and use that energy wisely.
My little secret is that I skim through the query first and then read the pages. I'm not reading the query in depth first — I really just want to see if I connect to the author's voice and the story itself. If I do, I go back and read the query carefully, line by line, making sure the story seems to track and there aren't huge plot holes I can already spot. Great writing that fits one of my categories is the thing above everything else.
One of my personal pet peeves is when a character introduces themselves in a way that doesn't give us any insight into their voice or character. There are ways to do this that tell us so much — one of my favorites is the opening of The Lovely Bones: 'My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie.' The verb tense and the way that information is introduced just tells you so much in so few words and is immediately intriguing. Compare that to something like 'My name is Ali Levick, I'm a literary agent' — that's just not that interesting as a first sentence.
On the call I'm looking for someone who vibes with my editorial vision for the story. My goal in editing someone's work is not to make it more my own vision — it's to clarify their vision and make it the best version they could possibly imagine of their own book. I also don't want to sway someone into my editorial direction just because they want an agent so badly, because that can lead them to make their book something it isn't. Beyond that, I'm looking for someone who feels like a committed partner in their career — someone who wants to innovate and grow and is really in it for the long haul, working on book two, book three, book four down the road.
My biggest piece of advice is don't let rejections get in your head. Try to learn from each one, keep crafting, keep working, keep reading — but this field is so subjective. When I pass on something I'm not saying it's bad, I'm saying it's not for me, that I am not the best person to advocate for this work. I'm simply saying I'm not the best person for this book at this time. It's really important not to let other people's nos get in the way of your one eventual yes.
What Alexandra is looking for
Her single busiest category by confirmed deal volume. She seeks author-illustrators and illustrators who aspire to write their own texts — she is explicitly NOT seeking picture book text-only authors at this time. She values books with emotional weight and a real thematic reason to exist, not just a cute premise. Her sold titles range from warm family-and-community stories to playful, humor-forward concepts, suggesting she is equally comfortable with tender and comedic.
She describes wanting a wide range, and her sales reflect that breadth — from graphic-novel-adjacent series to straight fiction. She gravitates toward distinctive voices, big emotional themes (grief, identity, belonging), and stories that spark conversation. Humor-inflected MG with real heart is well represented on her list. She is particularly drawn to own-voice stories from underrepresented communities.
Her YA list is where her award and international-rights credentials are strongest. She wants character-driven stories built around substantial themes — identity, mental health, queerness, culture, grief — rendered with an authentic, transporting voice. She is not interested in safe, tidy narratives; she wants books that provoke real conversations. She openly embraces genre-blending: fantasy, sci-fi, and speculative threads are all welcome alongside contemporary YA.
A declared growth area rather than her deepest catalog. She is specifically interested in adult romance, horror, and fantasy — particularly work that bends or blends genres. Her taste runs toward the literary-feeling end of these categories: atmospheric, voice-driven, thematically rich. Straight commercial thrillers, crime fiction, and erotica are not a fit. Her adult list is smaller than her children's one, so competition here may be lower.
A thread running across every category, not a standalone genre. She has explicitly committed to representing creators from diverse and historically underrepresented backgrounds and is actively seeking own-voice stories that open up unfamiliar experiences for readers. This is a stated priority, not an afterthought, and is reflected throughout her list.
Not the right fit
On Alexandra's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Alexandra
She is currently closed as of April 1, 2026 — do not query until her form reopens; check her agency page and personal site (alexandralevick.com) for the updated status.
She explicitly does not accept picture book submissions from text-only authors — only author-illustrators or illustrators who aspire to write. Submitting text-only picture book manuscripts will disqualify your query.
She is not seeking screenplays under any circumstances — do not attach or mention one in a query.
Voice is her single most-stated priority across all categories. Your query letter and sample pages must convey the distinctiveness of your narrative voice immediately; lead with a passage that demonstrates it rather than relying on plot summary alone.
She responds strongly to books built around a substantial thematic core — mortality, identity, grief, cultural belonging — presented not as 'issue books' but as story-first works. Frame your pitch around what conversation your book starts, not just what happens.
Her wishlist consistently invokes the windows-mirrors-sliding-glass-doors framework (Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop). If your work is own-voice or opens up an underrepresented experience, say so explicitly and early in the query.
Her adult list is the smallest and most deliberately curated of her categories — if querying adult fiction, make crystal clear that your work is genre-bent or speculative (romance, horror, fantasy with a literary sensibility). Straight thrillers, crime, and erotica will not be considered.
She has a media rights background in film and TV, so she is attuned to narrative momentum and cinematic pacing — work that has strong forward propulsion alongside thematic depth is likely to appeal to her.
Her strongest publisher relationships appear to be with HarperCollins imprints (Balzer+Bray, Quill Tree, HarperChildren's) and Penguin Random House imprints (Viking Children's, Knopf BFYR, Dial, Kokila) — knowing these imprints and whether your work fits them can inform how you position comparable titles.