Julie Gourinchas is a Bell Lomax Moreton agent championing a tightly curated list of upmarket and literary adult and new adult fiction — her gravitational centre is the literary-speculative, with a pronounced hunger for anything weird, dark, and formally inventive.
In brief
Closed to queries as of 20 March 2026 — check her agency page before submitting anything.
Her self-described sweet spot is 'literary-speculative,' but her taste compass is broader than that phrase suggests: horror, gothic, romantasy, dark westerns, and genre-punk all sit comfortably on her list provided the writing is striking and the concept is high.
Her clients have been recognised across a remarkable spread of awards — British Book Awards, Hugo Awards, Stoker Awards, BSFA Awards, Betty Trask Award, and Saltire National Book Awards — signalling both commercial ambition and literary credibility in tandem.
Her most specific, publicly stated desire is for interconnected romantasy standalones built around Lisa Kleypas-level heat and drama but infused with speculative elements — a very targeted brief that almost no one is currently pitching.
First-person narration is a genuine friction point for her; she'll consider it but writers should know it starts at a disadvantage. Earned (rather than easy) happy endings and deep character work are non-negotiable across every category.
Lately
She publicly declared that her number-one wish is for a series of interconnected romantasy standalones — not sequels, but self-contained books that share a world and characters — built around the heat, drama, and character depth of Lisa Kleypas's Wallflowers series, but with speculative or magical elements woven in.
What Julie is looking for
This is arguably her most active lane. She wants horror anchored in feminist or cultural critique, body horror, warped or 'mangled' nature, and cosmic/Lovecraftian dread. Within this, she has called out cottagegore, horror-romance, swamp settings (with notable enthusiasm), and literary reinventions of the vampire as especially welcome. The writing must be upmarket in register — pulpy splatter is not the target.
Subversive, challenging, or provocative literary fiction that operates at the edges of social acceptability — fiction that unsettles as much as it entertains. Difficult interiority, eccentric or transgressive protagonists, and prose that takes risks are all welcome. The category rewards writers willing to be genuinely strange.
She wants the genre's razor edge rather than its glossy surface — specifically fiction that interrogates the exploitative and hierarchical machinery of academic institutions. Genre-blending is actively encouraged here, especially with horror, gothic, or speculative elements. The benchmark is literary sophistication; she cites The Secret History and Catherine House as the right end of the spectrum and The Atlas Six as too far toward the commercial.
Regional gothic is the specific desire — fiction where place is almost a character, where landscape and atmosphere are inseparable from the emotional or thematic core. Evocative, grounded, and aesthetically rich. She has named writers associated with Southern US gothic and lush period settings as touchstones.
Fantasy where the world feels coherent, recognisable, and internally logical — either set directly in our world or built close enough to it that the familiar bleeds through. Her stated fascination is the intersection of magic, faith, and technology. She is not drawn to sprawling epic or high fantasy; she wants ideas-led work with a clear literary sensibility. Alternate history sits comfortably here.
She is enthusiastic about this genre but has a precise vision: fresh, bold, and emotionally charged romantasy built on genuine heat, intricate character dynamics, and speculative invention. Her dream project is a series of interconnected (not sequential) standalone novels in the Lisa Kleypas Wallflowers mould — same drama and romantic intensity, but with magic woven through. Hard pass on SJM-style fae courts, manipulative 'shadow daddy' love interests, and portal fantasies.
Literary contemporary fiction centred on questions of identity and belonging, told with an unflinching, almost uncomfortable honesty. The work should have genuine stakes and provoke real discomfort — she has described it as 'what Saltburn should have been,' suggesting she wants the transgressive charge without the tonal inconsistency.
Westerns that use the genre's mythology as a prism for examining the American Dream's contradictions, broken promises, and violence. The speculative dimension is welcome — even encouraged. Literary execution is expected.
She holds both registers in equal affection: whimsy that carries a dark undertow, and darkness that lets a little wonder in. The defining quality should be tonal precision — the magic must feel earned, not decorative.
Romance or romantic fiction where the ending is not conventionally happy — emotionally complex, unflinching, and real. One hard limit: non-consensual and dubiously consensual content is not welcome.
Any '-punk' subgenre — steampunk, solarpunk, silkpunk, clockpunk, dieselpunk, cyberpunk — executed with intelligence and genuine literary weight. The best shorthand she has offered: if a project can make a smart, credible comparison to the world and aesthetic of Arcane, she wants to see it. One clarification worth noting: despite the label, she is not particularly interested in fiction centred on punk music itself.
Literary historical fiction where character psychology and development sit at the centre, and where the period setting (she favours the 19th and 20th centuries) is richly evoked rather than merely decorative. Alternate history is explicitly encouraged. The prose standard should be high.
Not the right fit
On Julie's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Julie
Confirm she is open before doing anything — as of 20 March 2026 she is closed, and her agency page is the only reliable indicator of when that changes.
Do not query by email under any circumstances, even when she reopens — her own page explicitly forbids it; use the agency's submission form only.
Lead with concept and stakes: she responds to 'hooky, high-concept' premises. Your query letter should make the idea land in a single sentence before anything else.
Name your aesthetic influences, not just your genre — she thinks in cultural registers (A24 films, Hozier, Ethel Cain). A pitch that signals tonal kinship with those reference points will resonate faster than a genre label alone.
If writing in the romantasy space, lean hard into the Lisa Kleypas comparison if it is genuinely apt — she has been unusually specific about wanting that heat-and-drama template plus speculative elements, and the interconnected-standalones structure is her stated dream.
If your narrative voice is first person, acknowledge the risk: she has flagged it as a harder sell. This does not mean disqualify yourself, but your opening pages must be exceptional enough to overcome her default hesitation.
Avoid positioning your dark academia, gothic, or horror work as 'cosy' or softening its edges in the pitch — she wants the work to be genuinely spiky, not reassuring.
Genre-blending is a positive signal, not a complication: frame overlapping genres as intentional and coherent, not as an apology.