Alice Speilburg is the founder of Speilburg Literary Agency, a champion of propulsive crime fiction, myth-drenched fantasy, and immersive historical adventures featuring women who drive the story rather than react to it.
In brief
Speilburg's agency page confirms bestsellers, Edgar Award winners, Audie Award winners, and a Pura Belpré Honoree on her list — she has demonstrated commercial and award-track muscle across both fiction and nonfiction.
She opens queries on the 10th of each month, making timing a real variable — check the live form around that window rather than assuming it's open between cycles.
Her wishlist heavily emphasizes women in motion: she wants protagonists on quests, solving crimes, or upending history — not characters trapped in reactive domestic situations.
Nonfiction and YA are explicitly off the table for new clients right now, even though her backlist includes both — her current acquisition focus is adult commercial fiction.
The arts-meets-adventure throughline is the clearest taste signal across her entire list: scientists, musicians, researchers, and artists navigating dangerous or turbulent worlds appear again and again in what she seeks.
Lately
It's #MSWL day! I'm looking for fiction: propulsive and atmospheric crime fiction, immersive historical adventures, myth-based fantasy. I adore: Dark, macabre atmosphere; creatives as MCs; outdoor adventures & more! I open to Qs on the 10th of each month. manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/al...
In a post from late February 2026, Speilburg highlighted her focus on propulsive crime fiction, immersive historical adventures, and myth-based fantasy, specifically calling out dark macabre atmosphere, creative professionals as main characters, and outdoor adventure as recurring elements she craves. She also reiterated her monthly query window: submissions open on the 10th of each month.
What Alice is looking for
Speilburg wants crime fiction that is propulsive and atmospheric above all else. On the cozier end she gravitates toward whodunits with unexpected, underestimated sleuths — think semi-cozy in tone but with real ingenuity in the mystery architecture. Visually distinctive settings matter enormously to her (a monastery, a botanical garden, an unusual institution). For suspense she wants the protagonist actively hunting the truth, not passively enduring a threatening situation. Domestic suspense where the lead simply reacts to danger is a hard pass.
She is drawn to turbulent historical periods rich with secrets, espionage, and political intrigue — moments where the stakes are civilizational. Female, nonbinary, or queer protagonists are a strong preference. Stories about how artists and creatives responded to or resisted political upheaval are a particular sweet spot, as are novelized accounts of real women from history who have been overlooked. Pairs or small groups of unlikely female companions navigating danger together also appeal to her strongly.
Her fantasy appetite centers on historically grounded worlds where magic is woven in with charm and consequence rather than erected as its own system from scratch, though she is also open to fully realized secondary-world fantasy. Folklore retellings — especially those rooted in non-Western traditions, Indigenous communities, or Appalachian folk culture — are an active priority. She wants a complicated, capable woman at the center of the narrative and a sense of genuine adventure. Grounded science fiction is also welcome. She also gravitates toward horror-adjacent fantasy that shares the same dark naturalism: eerie woods, ancient things coming back, a creeping dread layered over a lush setting.
She wants horror that is atmospheric and rooted in place — extreme environments (a brutal winter, an isolated desert) are especially compelling to her. Stories where old myths or buried wrongs resurface to haunt the present-day protagonist are a recurring interest. Supernatural elements, dark naturalism, and unsettling natural settings (the weird, creeping life of deep woods) all resonate. She looks to authors like T. Kingfisher and C.J. Cooke as touchstones for the register she's seeking.
She is open to upmarket contemporary fiction when it carries the hallmarks she prizes across all categories: an active protagonist (often an overlooked or underestimated woman), a sense of adventure or journey, and an arts-or-science angle that roots the story in a specific world of expertise or creative practice.
Speilburg has a genuine affinity for culturally relevant nonfiction, particularly work by journalists, and her backlist includes titles in this space. However, she has explicitly paused nonfiction submissions for new clients because she recently signed several clients in this category. Do not query her with nonfiction until she signals this has reopened.
Not the right fit
On Alice's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Alice
Time your submission carefully: Speilburg opens queries on the 10th of each month. Check the live form status at or after that date — submitting outside the window means your query will sit until the next cycle at best or be missed entirely.
The single most important signal in your query: your protagonist is moving, deciding, hunting — not reacting. Make that agency crystal-clear in your opening pitch. She will pass on any project where it sounds like the lead is being acted upon.
If your book lives at the intersection of a creative discipline (music, theater, visual art, science, historical research) and a dangerous or turbulent world, say so explicitly and early. That overlap is one of her deepest recurring interests.
For fantasy and historical fiction, specificity of setting and cultural grounding matters more to her than elaborate world-building mechanics. Name the folklore tradition, the historical period, the real geography — she responds to immersion.
Do not query with nonfiction until she publicly signals the pause has lifted. Do not query with YA, middle grade, picture books, poetry, or screenplays under any circumstances.
A romantic subplot is fine and may even strengthen the query, but frame it as subplot — she needs to see that something other than the romance is powering the plot engine.
BIPOC characters, cultures, and perspectives are a genuine and consistent priority across every category she seeks. If your book centers those voices, that is a strength worth naming in the query.
She is a Kentuckian with a background in music (violin) and nature conservation — writers whose work touches on Appalachian settings, folk traditions, or the natural world may find an especially receptive reader.