Kaylyn Aldridge is a hands-on, editorially-focused junior agent at Metamorphosis Literary Agency who gravitates toward the strange, the vulnerable, and the unclassifiable — hunting for fiction that blends horror, romance, literary experimentation, and diverse voices in ways that resist easy genre labeling.
In brief
Her stated taste is unusually wide — horror to steamy rom-coms, Southern gothic to science-fiction-adjacent weird fiction — but the connective tissue is always character-forward, emotionally raw, and formally adventurous work that resists safe categorization.
She explicitly champions authors who refuse to sand down their work for mainstream palatability; if your manuscript has been called 'too strange' or 'too vulnerable,' that is a selling point with her, not a liability.
Her wishlist skews heavily toward adult fiction (commercial, upmarket, and literary), with a particular concentration on horror subgenres (literary, psychological, feminist, body, supernatural) and romance-adjacent categories (slow burn, steamy rom-com, gothic romance, romantic thriller).
As a junior agent still building her list, she is in active acquisition mode — her submission window opened early in 2026 and runs through at least end of July, which is a meaningful opportunity to get in front of her.
She is pursuing a degree alongside agenting, which signals she is intellectually engaged with craft; query letters that engage with the 'why' of a book's formal choices are likely to resonate with her.
Lately
My QM is officially open early this year, all the way until the end of July! Check out what I'm looking to acquire below. I cannot wait to see what you all have been working on. #writingcommunity #romanceauthors #womensficauthors #weirdlitauthors #horrorauthors #amquerying #mswl
Romance writers! I YEARN for slow burns with lots of yearning. If you've got a romance book you'd like to pitch with equal parts yearning, angst, and slow burn, chances are I'll go crazy over it. Come see me this Friday! #mswl #romancewriters #amquerying #amqueryingromance
Something something 🙏🏾cannibalism as a metaphor for intense love🙏🏾 something something 🙏🏾gender-swapped Frankenstein🙏🏾 something something 🙏🏾bizarre and freaky and angsty characters please.🙏🏾 #mswl #horrorwriters #romancewriters #amquerying #horrorromancewriters #manuscriptwishlist
I have been craving a YA book with a similar voice to The Princess Diaries. Like, desperately. #MSWL #YAauthors #blackYAauthors #amquerying
Calling all authors! I will be taking pitches LIVE on Zoom at The Crucible Pitch Conference on April 3rd. I'm looking for romance, commercial fiction, LGBT+ fiction, and more. Check out the details here: 9r455r0075.com/agent-editor... Hope to see you there! #amquerying #writersofbsky
She announced her query window opened ahead of schedule in 2026 and will remain open through the end of July, expressing genuine enthusiasm about seeing what writers have been working on. The announcement used hashtags targeting romance, women's fiction, weird lit, and horror authors specifically.
What Kaylyn is looking for
This is arguably her clearest passion area. She wants horror that operates on multiple registers simultaneously — psychological unease, feminist critique, body horror, Southern gothic atmosphere, the supernatural — and that trusts readers to sit with discomfort. Think horror that has a literary conscience and a willingness to go somewhere genuinely strange. Subgenres she actively names include feminist horror, psychological horror, body horror, supernatural horror, literary horror, horror-comedy, and New Weird. She is not looking for straightforward commercial splatter; she wants horror with something to say.
She is drawn to female-centric narratives with genuine emotional and structural ambition — book-club-friendly fiction that also has literary teeth. Dark female friendships, complicated family sagas told through multiple narrators or POVs, Southern literary fiction, and stories centered on grief, identity, and relationships that resist tidy resolution all appear repeatedly in her wishlist. Feminist perspectives and diverse, BIPOC, or queer protagonists are priorities. She also welcomes formally inventive approaches: epistolary structures, multiple POVs, experimental voices.
She wants romance with heat and personality — steamy rom-coms, slow-burn romance, romantic thrillers, gothic romance, romantic suspense, and same-sex romance are all explicitly on her radar. New Adult romantic fiction and campus novels with romantic throughlines also fit. Her background reading saccharine romance alongside gore-heavy horror means she is comfortable with the full tonal spectrum; she likely gravitates toward romances that have a darker edge or a distinctly weird atmosphere.
She actively calls out stories that 'don't fit neatly into a genre' as exactly what she wants. Fabulism, mythpunk, modernized mythologies, and New Weird all fall into this bucket. If your book blends realism with surreal or fantastical elements in a way that defies easy shelving, she is a natural fit. She is interested in paranormal and supernatural elements when they serve character and theme rather than formula.
Retellings are welcome when they center BIPOC characters and bring genuine subversive energy — Shakespeare retellings, fairy tale retellings, and modernized mythologies all appear in her wishlist. The key qualifier is that the retelling must do real work: she is not interested in retellings that merely transpose a classic plot onto a new setting without interrogating it.
Contemporary fiction with grounded, realistic stakes — modern dating, coming-of-age, campus novels, family drama, dramedy — is welcome when it features underrepresented, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or neurodiverse protagonists and voices. She gravitates toward stories with layered emotional texture over plot-driven narratives.
Not the right fit
On Kaylyn's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Kaylyn
Her submission window is open through end of July 2026 — confirmed as of May 3, 2026. Check the live form before submitting, as windows can close early.
Lead your query letter with what makes your book formally or emotionally strange. She explicitly prizes work that resists easy categorization; if your book defies genre labels, say so and lean into it rather than hedging.
If your manuscript falls into horror, be specific about the type — literary, feminist, body, psychological, supernatural, horror-comedy — because she distinguishes carefully among them and wants to know which register you're working in.
Diversity of protagonist identity (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodiverse) and own-voices positioning are strong signals for her; if applicable, mention this clearly without burying it.
Avoid pitching work you've softened to make more marketable. Her profile explicitly names authors who resist diluting their work as her target client; a query that acknowledges a manuscript's sharp edges or uncomfortable subject matter will likely resonate more than one that reassures her it is 'accessible.'
For retellings, name the source text and state clearly what your retelling does that the original does not — she wants subversion with purpose, not surface-level transposition.
She is pursuing a degree and identifies as a reader drawn to craft — a brief, genuine sentence about your formal choices (epistolary structure, multiple POVs, experimental voice) is worth including if it applies.
Her hashtag targeting on the open-window announcement specifically called out romance, women's fiction, weird lit, and horror authors — if your book sits at the intersection of any two of these, surface that cross-genre identity upfront.