Kathryn Fay is the publisher and founding editor of Modern Artist Press, an independent literary press dedicated to expanding the definition of what a "modern artist" can be — seeking formally adventurous, culturally rich literary fiction from and about underrepresented voices.
In brief
Fay is not a traditional literary agent — she is the publisher and founding editor of Modern Artist Press, an indie press. Writers should approach her as a small-press acquisitions editor, not a literary agent seeking to place books at major houses.
Her personal taste and her press's mission are tightly aligned: a foreign service upbringing across Brazil, South Korea, Morocco, Russia, and Argentina has produced an editor with a deep appetite for immigrant stories, expat literature, and globally inflected fiction.
Her favorite-books list signals a clear affinity for structural innovation — she names titles known for fragmented, mosaic, or formally unexpected architecture, suggesting she responds to manuscripts that treat form as an expressive tool, not just a vessel.
She holds both an English and an Art History background, which explains her rare interest in art history fiction as a standalone category — a niche that most agents and editors ignore entirely.
She does not represent YA, memoir, or poetry, and her scope is adult literary fiction only — writers in those categories should not query.
Lately
In a published interview, Fay spoke about her love of the literary and her vision for Modern Artist Press as a home for fiction that defies easy categorization — reflecting her belief that the best writing resists genre boxes and challenges what a 'modern artist' can be.
What Kathryn is looking for
This is Fay's most emphatic priority. She wants story cycles and novels built from interconnected stories — works where individual pieces resonate fully on their own but accumulate into something larger. She also prizes structural experimentation within this form: fragmented, mosaic, or unconventional architectures that use form as part of the storytelling.
Sweeping family narratives across generations, particularly those rooted in immigrant or diaspora experience. She gravitates toward stories where family becomes a lens for examining culture, displacement, and identity over time.
Literary fiction that draws on speculative, horror, or genre conventions — not genre fiction per se, but literary work where the strange, the uncanny, or the fantastical operates as a thematic and emotional layer. The key is that the literary sensibility drives the work, with genre elements as enrichment rather than scaffolding.
A distinctive niche that reflects Fay's M.A. in Art History: novels centered on art, artists, or the art world, as well as fictional biographies, imagined lives of historical figures, and alternate histories. This is an underserved category that matches both her academic background and her press's identity as a publisher of 'modern artists.'
Across all categories, Fay seeks fiction from and about communities whose stories have been underrepresented in mainstream publishing — including African Diaspora, Caribbean, Latinx, Muslim, immigrant, expat, exile, queer, and LGBTQ+ perspectives. This is a through-line, not a standalone category: she wants diverse heroines, character-focused narratives, and fiction that centers voices and experiences outside the traditional publishing mainstream.
Not the right fit
On Kathryn's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Kathryn
Email your submission to submissions@modernartistpress.com — this is the designated submissions address, separate from Fay's direct editorial email.
Your submission packet must include: the first 25 pages of your completed manuscript as a Word document attachment, a one-page description of the overall story, a half-page author biography, and initial ideas for marketing the published book. Missing any of these components is likely to result in a pass.
The marketing ideas component is unusual and telling — Fay expects writers to think like collaborators in the publishing process, not just artists. Come prepared with concrete, realistic ideas, not vague gestures.
Lead your pitch with the structural and formal qualities of your manuscript — if your work uses a linked-story architecture, fragmented chronology, or other formal innovation, say so explicitly and early. Her favorite-books list is dominated by formally inventive work.
Make your cultural and geographic grounding clear. Fay's background spans six countries, and her taste runs to globally inflected stories of displacement, diaspora, and immigrant life. If your book lives in that world, say where and why it matters.
Do not query with YA, memoir, poetry, or nonfiction — she is explicit about not seeking these, and submitting them signals you haven't done your research.
Confirm the submissions portal is currently open before sending — query status was unverified at time of this profile. Check the live submissions page directly.