Leila Campoli is a Brooklyn-based Stonesong agent with a decade-plus track record who hunts for weird, speculative, and genre-bending literary fiction alongside high-concept nonfiction rooted in science, marginalized lives, and big-picture ideas.
In brief
Her named author influences — VanderMeer, LaValle, Emezi, Moreno-Garcia — form a tight cluster: literary, strange, politically aware, and unafraid of genre. Writers who occupy that same crossroads are her sweet spot.
Her leading clients lean heavily nonfiction (Dolly Chugh is a social psychologist; Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is a behavioral economist; Samantha Allen is a journalist/critic) — suggesting she has real editorial relationships in the narrative-nonfiction and social-science space, not just a stated interest.
Despite listing picture books as a fiction category, her public wishlist and author influences are entirely adult — query picture books only after verifying she is still seeking them, and only if you are an author-illustrator (she has not signaled interest in text-only picture book manuscripts).
Her TV touchstones (What We Do in the Shadows, Our Flag Means Death, Dark, I May Destroy You) underline a taste for darkly comic, queer-inflected, or psychologically unsettling narratives — even if she never uses those exact words about a manuscript.
Query status was last observed as unknown in April 2026; verify the live submission form at Stonesong before sending.
Lately
Her public profile identifies climate fiction, slipstream, weird fiction, queer narratives, and social-issues storytelling as the sub-genres she is most actively seeking — a tighter and more specific list than her general category tags suggest.
What Leila is looking for
This is her most emphatic fictional desire. She wants literary fiction with genuine strangeness — work that bends genre toward horror or satire without abandoning prose ambition. Jeff VanderMeer and Brian Evenson are explicit touchstones, pointing toward the uncanny, the ecological, and the formally experimental. The TV comp Servant and Devs reinforce a taste for slow-burn dread with intellectual scaffolding.
She actively names climate fiction and slipstream as favorite sub-genres. Stories set in extreme natural environments — open ocean, desert, deep forest, dense urban zones — are specifically on her radar. This isn't soft eco-fiction; she wants speculative premises with literary execution, ideally engaging with how environment shapes power, survival, or psychology.
She consistently champions marginalized and minority voices and names Akwaeke Emezi, Victor LaValle, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia as favorites — authors known for centering LGBTQ+, Black, and Afro-Latin experiences within genre-inflected literary work. Social-issues fiction and queer narratives are listed as explicit sub-genre preferences. The tone should be literary; the perspective should be specific.
Her confirmed client roster is anchored here. She represents a social psychologist and a behavioral economist, signaling genuine editorial fluency with research-driven, idea-driven books aimed at general audiences. She is drawn to counterintuitive arguments, big ideas with daily-life relevance, and stories that open a window onto overlooked institutions or fields.
She has flagged an interest in books that illuminate lives and operations most readers would never otherwise encounter. True crime and journalism are listed categories, but the framing suggests she is more interested in cultural or social reporting than pure crime procedural. Memoir works best when it doubles as cultural analysis or social observation.
These are listed categories and fit her general sensibility, though her named clients and author influences don't foreground them. Works with a strong authorial point of view and cultural stakes are likely to stand out more than trend-driven or purely aspirational lifestyle titles.
Picture books appear in her listed fiction categories, but nothing in her stated wishlist, author influences, or confirmed deals points to this being an active focus. If you are an author-illustrator with a project that connects to her broader interests (queer themes, science, underrepresented perspectives), it may be worth querying — but text-only picture book writers should not assume she is seeking their work.
Not the right fit
On Leila's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Leila
Send your query to editors@stonesong.com and include the word 'query' in the subject line — this is explicitly required to avoid spam filtering.
Paste your first chapter or first 10 pages directly into the body of the email. Do not send attachments; they will not be read.
Do not send a query to her personal email without confirming current submission routing — her profile now lists a second agency (Calligraph); verify which address is live for new queries.
Lead your pitch by naming the specific sub-genre intersection: 'climate fiction,' 'weird horror,' 'queer upmarket literary' — she thinks in these granular terms and will respond to a query that speaks her language.
If you are writing nonfiction, articulate the counterintuitive idea or the overlooked world your book opens up within the first paragraph. Her nonfiction clients all have a clear conceptual hook, not just a subject matter.
Her TV references (Dark, I May Destroy You, Our Flag Means Death) reveal a tolerance for moral ambiguity, queerness as default rather than theme, and slow reveals — let your sample pages reflect tone, not just plot summary.
Confirm her open/closed status on Stonesong's live submissions page before sending; status was unconfirmed as of April 2026.