Lara Perkins is a Senior Agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency who champions character-driven thrillers, purposeful horror, historical fiction, and grounded SFF for YA and adult audiences — with an outsider's eye, a postcolonial lens, and a deep love for the twisty and unexpected.
In brief
Her agency page makes her current focus crystal-clear: open queries are welcome only for YA and adult fiction — children's and illustration projects require a referral. Writers submitting picture books or MG cold are wasting their stamp.
Her represented client roster (Tami Charles, Kirsten W. Larson, Emily Martin) signals a long track record in children's books, but her *current* open wishlist has pivoted firmly toward YA and adult genre fiction — trust what she says now, not what she sold five years ago.
Her comp titles skew heavily toward authors of color and underrepresented voices (Nnedi Okofor, Cherie Dimaline, Ayana Gray, Alyssa Cole, Stephen Graham Jones) — this is not performative; intersectionality and anti-colonial perspective are stated core values backed by a Columbia MA in feminist and postcolonial theory.
She has a pronounced weakness for unreliable narrators, dual timelines, and enemies-to-lovers — writers who can engineer all three into a single pitch are playing directly to her wheelhouse.
Submission window is narrow: she reads new queries only on the 1st through 10th of each month, so timing your send matters as much as your pages.
Lately
Her agency page clarifies that open queries are limited to YA and adult fiction; children's projects across all formats — including illustration — require a referral. This is a significant narrowing of her cold-query scope compared to older directory listings.
What Lara is looking for
Commercial and literary thrillers are at the top of her list. She wants maximum twistiness and rewards writers who subvert reader expectations at every turn. Both psychological suspense and plot-driven page-turners qualify, provided the characters are fully realized. She's drawn to the literary-thriller blend where emotional stakes match narrative stakes.
She wants horror that carries weight and meaning — not shock for its own sake. Gothic horror, psychological horror, and culturally rooted horror all fit. She's especially interested in horror that draws on mythology, folklore, and urban legends, and in projects that reflect specific communities and perspectives. Super-violent body horror is explicitly not her territory.
She gravitates toward historical fiction that feels urgent and cinematic rather than dusty or academic. Retellings that recenter a marginalized voice or flip a familiar story to expose its blind spots are particularly exciting to her. Anti-colonial and feminist framings align with her graduate-school background and her stated values.
Her SFF appetite is specific: she wants worlds that feel grounded and surprising, not sprawling high-fantasy empires or exposition-heavy world-building. Character and emotional stakes must lead; the speculative elements should make readers feel vicariously smart. Genre mash-ups are welcome. She's cool on knights-and-royalty feudal settings unless they're actively interrogating imperialism.
Lara has a substantial background representing picture books, early readers, chapter books, and middle grade, and she continues to work with existing children's clients. However, she is not accepting unsolicited queries in any children's category — a referral is required to be considered. Writers without an existing connection to her or her agency should not query cold for children's projects.
Not the right fit
On Lara's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Lara
Timing is everything: submit only on the 1st through 10th of the month. A query sent on the 12th will fall outside her designated reading window.
Do not query cold for children's projects of any kind — picture book, MG, chapter book, or illustration. Only YA and adult fiction are open to unsolicited queries.
Lead your pitch with what makes your protagonist an outsider and what makes them fully, messily human. She values character depth above all else.
If your book features an unreliable narrator, a dual timeline, or an enemies-to-lovers arc, name it explicitly and early — these are documented favorites, not just buzzwords to her.
Anchor your comp titles to the authors she has cited on her own page; her comps skew toward authors of color and voices from underrepresented communities, which signals the lane she is actively building.
Her academic background is in feminist and postcolonial theory — if your work engages with anti-colonial narratives, intersectionality, or a wide historical lens, say so plainly rather than leaving her to infer it.
For horror submissions, signal clearly that your horror has thematic purpose and cultural grounding; she distinguishes purposeful horror from gratuitous shock, and the query is where you make that case.
Avoid positioning your project primarily through its world-building in SFF; open with character, emotional stakes, and the specific feeling the book creates before introducing the speculative mechanics.