Ben Miller-Callihan is a San Diego-based agent at Handspun Literary Agency hunting for character-driven, cozy-to-macabre speculative fiction with a nerdy, culturally specific heart — especially work by writers from marginalized communities.
In brief
Ben came to agenting through an unusual route — over a decade teaching high school English plus behind-the-scenes agency operations (tech support, bookkeeping) before formally joining Handspun in 2019 — giving him an editorial sensibility grounded in both classroom reading culture and the business realities of publishing.
His personal taste is unusually coherent: the pop-culture touchstones he lists (The Good Place, Schitt's Creek, Ted Lasso, Great British Bake-Off, Our Flag Means Death) all share warmth, ensemble character work, gentle oddity, and a strong moral or community core — writers should stress those qualities in their pitch.
He operates within a boutique family agency, which means relationships are close, editorial involvement is hands-on, and the list is intentionally small — competition for a spot is real even when the form is open.
His specific callouts — Deaf culture, off-the-beaten-path folklore, food, and the macabre 'for all ages' — are distinctive enough that writers with those angles should lead with them; they are not afterthoughts, they are differentiators.
No public deal record is available to analyze against his stated wishlist, so his stated preferences are the primary signal; writers should weight his detailed category and cultural interests accordingly.
Lately
His current agency page confirms he is actively open to queries, with a particular emphasis on character-driven speculative fiction, the macabre across all age categories, Deaf culture, food-centric storytelling, and non-mainstream folklore traditions. Writers from historically marginalized communities are explicitly welcomed and encouraged.
What Ben is looking for
This is clearly Ben's center of gravity. He wants work that leads with character and atmosphere over plot mechanics — 'quirky' and 'cozy' are his own words, but his pop-culture touchstones make clear he also values moral complexity and genuine emotional stakes. Think speculative worlds where the community or the protagonist's inner life matters as much as the magic system or technology. Folklore that takes an unexpected angle — regional, non-Western, underrepresented traditions — is a particular draw.
He is actively seeking fiction that bridges the literary and commercial divide — novels that feel emotionally resonant and carefully crafted but are also genuinely readable and genre-adjacent. The touchstone titles he names are both mainstream successes with a slightly fantastical or historical tinge, signaling he wants work that could sit comfortably on either a book-club or genre shelf.
Ben specifically notes he loves the macabre across age categories — not just adult horror but also middle-grade or YA with a dark, eerie sensibility. This is a meaningful signal: writers working in creepy, uncanny, or gothic registers for younger readers should not assume this is an adult-only interest. The 'for all ages' qualifier is meaningful and should not be dropped.
This is a specific and personal interest Ben names explicitly. He is not asking for disability-as-metaphor narratives but rather stories in which Deaf culture, community, and identity are authentically and centrally represented. Writers with lived experience or deep cultural grounding in the Deaf community should absolutely flag this in their query.
Food as a structural or thematic element — not just as flavor detail — is something Ben explicitly seeks. Given his wider taste for cozy, character-driven work, think culinary fiction where recipes, kitchens, restaurants, or food traditions are woven into the emotional core of the story rather than serving as backdrop.
He specifically wants folklore that goes off the expected path — not the well-trodden fairy-tale retellings but traditions, myths, and folk narratives from underrepresented cultures or unusual regional sources. The emphasis on writers from marginalized communities applies here with particular force.
LGBTQ+ fiction appears across his genre interests — speculative, literary, and commercial — rather than as a standalone category. His pop-culture touchstones (notably Our Flag Means Death) signal genuine enthusiasm for queer stories that center joy and community alongside conflict.
Not the right fit
Taste fingerprint
How to query Ben
Send a query letter, a synopsis of five pages or fewer, and the first three chapters or fifty pages of your manuscript — whichever is longer. Do not send less than three chapters even if fifty pages feels like a lot.
For nonfiction submissions, send a query letter and a full proposal rather than sample pages.
Attach files as Word documents; the agency prefers them over PDFs.
Expect a response window of four to eight weeks — do not follow up before that window closes.
If your work touches Deaf culture, non-Western or regional folklore, food as a central theme, or the macabre, name that in the opening line of your query. These are specific personal interests, and flagging them immediately tells Ben your manuscript is in his wheelhouse.
If you are a writer from a marginalized or historically underrepresented community, it is worth naming that briefly in your query — Ben explicitly welcomes and prioritizes these voices.
Frame your pitch around character and emotional atmosphere before plot mechanics. His touchstone titles and pop-culture affinities all center relationships and interiority; a query heavy on world-building stakes but light on character voice is less likely to hook him.
If your book sits at a crossover between literary and genre fiction — the kind that could appear on a book-club list or a fantasy shelf — lean into that dual identity in your pitch rather than committing exclusively to one shelf.
The 'nerd' identity is real and strategic: Handspun's tagline is 'books by, for, and about nerds.' Work that speaks to fandom cultures, genre enthusiasm, or niche intellectual communities may be worth framing that way.
Do not query screenplays; this is a firm agency-wide exclusion.