Jessica Berg is the founder of Rosecliff Literary and a champion of bold, emotionally resonant upmarket fiction — especially anything with haunting atmosphere, deep psychological wounds, and a past that refuses to stay buried.
In brief
Berg is currently CLOSED to queries as of March 2026 — her agency page and live submission form both confirm this; verify before attempting to submit.
Her stated sweet spot is upmarket, historical, and supernatural suspense with gothic atmosphere, grief-driven characters, and richly layered relationships — think candlelit rooms and storms, not jump scares.
Her named client list (Vincent Zandri, Lisa Roe, Arizona Bell) signals she works across commercial thriller and women's-adjacent fiction — a broader commercial range than her atmospheric wishlist language alone might suggest.
She contributes regularly to Writer's Digest and teaches nationally on querying and comp titles, meaning she has an unusually clear sense of what a well-crafted query looks like — sloppy queries will stand out for the wrong reasons.
Any emailed query is deleted unread — submission must go through her agency's official online form, and that form is currently closed.
Lately
In her most recently updated wishlist, Berg named horror — across its gothic, domestic, folk, and upmarket forms — as her single sharpest priority heading into 2026, describing it as something she's 'especially hungry for.' This is a notable elevation from a list that previously balanced horror with several other categories equally.
I request a full if I'm captivated by the query letter and I feel like the synopsis holds up. I don't faff around with 'here's 10 pages, here's 50' — no one has time for that. I want to be efficient. So I do have a higher request rate than a lot of agents, but that's because I'm excited by story. I'm like, 'Yeah, give me everything, I'll read it all.'
Rosecliffe produces seasonal manuscript wish lists because vibes change, story changes, what we want to read changes. I'm just getting to the bulk of the end of winter's wish list as we prepare for spring — so it's really fun to see these broody, gothic, dark winter stories and now look forward to something a little brighter. Still make me cry, right? That's always a given. Give me some feelings.
I love hearing that drive from clients who want to use an ensemble cast in second person or something we're just not seeing in bookstores, but I'm not going to be able to sell your debut if that's what it is. Align with what the industry wants to see for a while, establish your readership, and then by the time you've sold three or four books your community knows who you are — and you can be like, 'Guess what, I'm actually very weird, here's this thing,' and everyone's going to buy into it.
I never ever want Rosecliffe to feel elitist. We want to be the home for authors who feel like they don't fit elsewhere. Closing to anything but referrals feels so elitist to me — I want to go into my query inbox and be incredibly surprised by what I see. Please don't DM me your query, but if you want to DM me a picture of your cat, I'm not going to say no to that. I want everyone in my community to know I'm a person first.
I always say I need to love my client's work more than they love it, because then I can be your hype man. Getting your work, understanding your genre, knowing how to position it — that's why the agent-author fit is so critical.
We opened our doors May 31st of 2024. I'm in my query inbox every two weeks or so and I usually hover around 500. I got it down to around 350 recently. It's a little hectic right now — but I absolutely recognize the agency will need to close queries to catch up from time to time. Right now we're open and I'm not soliciting; I'm getting queries and personal referrals from the conference circuit and existing clients.
What Jessica is looking for
Berg's most urgent current priority. She wants horror that earns its dread through atmosphere, emotion, and specificity — not cheap shocks. Gothic horror with creeping elegance and a sense of ruin; domestic horror where the threat is the marriage, the house, or the family itself; folk horror so rooted in place you can nearly smell the landscape; and horror with genuine cultural and historical grounding. Upmarket horror with big feelings and sharp prose is especially welcome.
She wants dark academia that goes beyond the aesthetic — moody institutions, secret societies, obsession, rivalry, and the particular terror of wanting something too much. The atmosphere must serve real psychological and emotional stakes, not just mood-board imagery.
Emotionally specific, high-concept stories with real characters in real messes. She gravitates toward protagonists on the edge of reinvention and narratives that explore grief, longing, ambition, and survival in complicated intersection. Female friendships, feminist narratives, and domestic fiction with literary texture are all welcome here.
Character-driven history is a genuine passion — she sits on the Historical Novel Society board. She's drawn to historical women's fiction, historical mysteries, historical romance with wit, and any historical setting where a past that refuses to stay buried becomes a structural force in the story. WWI-era settings get a specific callout.
Upmarket speculative and speculative literary fiction with strong emotional stakes. She wants worlds on the brink of change and the supernatural used to illuminate very human wounds — grief, inheritance, longing. Gothic fantasy, historical fantasy grounded in reality, and mythic or folkloric threads are all squarely in her wheelhouse.
Domestic suspense and literary thriller with sharp writing and real psychological texture. The tension should come from relationships and interiority as much as plot mechanics.
She welcomes memoir, true crime, pop culture, psychology, feminism and women's issues, health, wellness, and travel. The connecting thread across these is a strong, readable voice and a story with real emotional stakes — she is not hunting for dry reference books.
Queer narratives and queer horror are explicitly welcomed across her fiction categories. LGBTQ+ contemporary and queer-centered upmarket fiction are on her list.
Culturally specific horror and mystery rooted in real community, real history, and real consequences. She wants stories where identity and cultural inheritance are woven into the genre's core, not applied as surface detail.
Not the right fit
On Jessica's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Jessica
Do not email a query under any circumstances — emailed queries are deleted unread. The only valid submission route is through Rosecliff Literary's official online form.
The form is currently closed (confirmed March 2026). Check the Rosecliff website for a reopening before submitting anything.
Her stated response target is 12 weeks, but she notes she often moves faster — don't nudge before the window closes.
Include a query letter and your first ten pages as specified. She does not offer personalized feedback due to volume.
Because Berg teaches nationally on query craft and comp titles, treat your query letter as a writing sample in its own right. A vague or poorly constructed query will register immediately.
Lead with atmosphere and emotional stakes — not plot mechanics. Her language across every platform is about feeling, dread, urgency, and character interiority. Mirror that register in your pitch.
If your book sits at a genre crossroads (e.g., historical + gothic horror, or upmarket + supernatural suspense), name both legs of that cross clearly. She consistently frames her taste in hybrid terms.
Culturally specific horror and historical fiction with a strong sense of place are explicitly prioritized — if your book has that grounding, foreground it early in the query.
Her MFA background and Writer's Digest platform mean she responds to writerly precision. One strong, specific comp is better than three generic ones.
She serves on the Historical Novel Society board — if your work is historical, a brief, accurate acknowledgment of the tradition you're working in can signal shared fluency.