Camille Kantor is a KC&A agent with a sharply focused appetite for nature-infused literary and upmarket fiction alongside popular-science nonfiction, especially where ecology, climate, and the living world collide with human experience.
In brief
Her wishlist is unusually specific: she is not just 'open to literary fiction' — she wants nature and science threaded into the story's DNA, not window dressing.
Her named touchstones (The Overstory, Migrations, Entangled Life, The Darkness Manifesto) form a coherent through-line: lyrical prose, ecological stakes, and moral urgency. If your book doesn't share at least one of those qualities, she is probably not your agent.
She lists climate fiction as her single named favorite sub-genre — a meaningful signal that sets her apart from most literary agents who treat it as a niche curiosity.
Her nonfiction appetite skews toward accessible science with a hopeful, solutions-oriented lens, not doom-and-gloom reportage; this is a meaningful qualifier writers often miss.
Her form opens only during the first week of each month when she is accepting queries, so timing your submission precisely matters as much as the pitch itself.
Lately
She announced plans to re-open queries in May 2024 on a rolling basis — accepting submissions only during the first week of each calendar month, then closing again for the remainder. This windowed model is her established practice.
What Camille is looking for
Her clearest nonfiction priority is eye-opening narrative science about the natural world — organisms, ecosystems, and the ripple effects of climate change on the living environment. She wants the work grounded in science but written for a broad audience, and she is explicit that she wants hope and actionable solutions woven in, not just crisis. Think accessible, lyrical science writing rather than pure academic or policy reportage.
She is drawn to fiction that is genuinely shaped by the natural world — not a forest as scenery, but ecology, science, or environmental reality as a structural or thematic engine. She wants complex characters and plot that hold their own, but the nature element must be integral. She has named climate fiction as a favorite sub-genre, and her touchstones lean toward sweeping, morally serious novels with lyrical prose.
She lists women's fiction and commercial fiction among her accepted categories, though her public emphasis and named touchstones skew more literary. Commercial work with a distinctive voice, strong characters, and some thematic resonance with nature or science would have the clearest path.
Listed among her accepted fiction categories, but she provides no specific wishlist language or touchstones for these. A historical or adventure novel would need to intersect meaningfully with her core nature/science interests to stand out in her queue.
She lists these nonfiction categories formally, but her specific enthusiasm is reserved for science and nature narratives. Biography, history, or journalism projects that don't have an ecological or scientific dimension are a harder sell; writers in these areas should look carefully at whether their work connects to her stated passions.
Not the right fit
On Camille's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Camille
Time your submission carefully: she accepts queries only during the first week of each calendar month when open — submitting on day eight is wasted effort. Confirm the form is live before hitting send.
Her form was observed closed in November 2025; always verify current status on her live submission page before querying.
Lead your query letter with the nature-science dimension of your work front and center — this is not an agent where you bury the ecological theme in paragraph three.
For nonfiction, your pitch must convey both the scientific credibility and the hopeful, solutions-facing angle she explicitly requires. A proposal that reads as pure crisis reporting without a constructive dimension will likely miss her mark.
Name at least one of her stated touchstones if it genuinely fits your comp — she has been unusually specific about the books she wants to echo, and a precise, honest comp signals you've done your homework. Never force a comp that doesn't fit.
Avoid describing nature as setting or atmosphere; frame it as structural, thematic, or central to character. The distinction matters to her and should be visible from your first paragraph.
She reads The New Yorker regularly — prose that is precise, essayistic, and intellectually alive will resonate. Overwrought or purely genre-mechanical writing is unlikely to connect.
If you write in one of her listed-but-unemphasized categories (biography, history, journalism, adventure), make the science or ecology connection explicit in your pitch or reconsider whether she is the right fit.