Liza Dawson is a veteran New York agent and former Big Five editor who hunts for smart, plot-driven commercial fiction, breakout historical novels, and narrative nonfiction rooted in cross-cultural expertise and women's experience.
In brief
Liza spent twenty years as an executive editor at Putnam and William Morrow before founding her own agency — she brings rare editorial depth and established Big Five relationships to every submission she takes on.
Her stated wishlist skews literary-commercial: think high-concept historical fiction, brainy thrillers with a strong sense of place, and literary fiction with book-club appeal. She is explicit that she is NOT a home for science fiction, fantasy, YA, children's books, business books, or religion titles.
She is currently closed to queries as of January 2024 — do not submit until the live status changes.
A key inferred signal: she explicitly asks writers who have previously placed work with small presses to consider upgrading to Big Five representation — suggesting she actively recruits mid-career authors ready for a larger platform.
Her taste is anchored in social class, closed societies, crux moments in history, and cross-cultural female experience — writers whose work sits at those intersections have the strongest pitch hook.
Lately
Her agency page currently states she is closed to queries, directing writers to send only a query letter by email when she reopens — no manuscript pages upfront.
What Liza is looking for
This is arguably her top priority. She wants breakout, plot-driven historical novels with confident literary voices. Ideal pitches involve a high-stakes era or crux moment in history — she has specifically described an appetite for a novel set during the French Revolution and a literary mystery series set in Peking between the two World Wars. Tone should be cinematic but intelligent.
She wants page-turning thrillers that educate — about spycraft, foreign intrigue, or a distinctive professional world the reader couldn't otherwise access. Mysteries should feature brainy, original detectives. She has floated a specific vision: a dark, tense contemporary novel built around a former CIA agent fearing for her life. Intelligence and craft matter as much as pace.
She gravitates toward literary fiction with genuine commercial reach — novels that will sustain a book-club conversation. Social class, closed societies (Wall Street, Washington D.C., the Middle East, exotic or religious communities), and race are recurring thematic preoccupations. She has described a dream project as 'Middlemarch meets Bonfire of the Vanities' set in D.C. Voice is paramount.
Cross-cultural subjects and women's issues are her nonfiction spine, always written by credentialed experts. She is drawn to memoirs by people — any gender — who have escaped closed or repressive societies, and to narrative history that illuminates unfamiliar worlds. Journalists and poets with a story to tell fit her list particularly well. She is also actively searching for a contemporary voice on women navigating their fifties — a spiritual or cultural heir to Gail Sheehy.
Very narrow appetite, but real: she wants a wise, accessible voice capable of reaching the broad audience that authors like Eckhart Tolle and Pema Chödrön command. The bar is explicitly that high. Do not submit if your book is conventionally religious; she is not seeking religious titles.
She has a consistent soft spot for humor and tenderness across both fiction and nonfiction — cartoonists, quirky humorists, and adventurers with a generous point of view. Humor alone is not enough; it must be layered with substance and voice.
Not the right fit
On Liza's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Liza
She is currently closed to queries (confirmed January 2024) — check her agency page before sending anything.
When she reopens, send a query letter only in the body of the email; do not attach or include manuscript pages or a synopsis unless she requests them.
Use the address listed on her current agency page (queryliza@lizadawsonassociates.com) — not any older address you may have seen elsewhere.
She will only respond if she wants to see your manuscript; no response means no interest.
Lead with your hook and the thematic world of your book. She responds to social stakes, closed societies, and high-concept historical settings — name those elements in your first paragraph.
If your work has been previously self-published or published by a small press, do not query her; she explicitly excludes this work.
Mid-career fiction writers who have published with small presses and are seeking Big Five representation are a profile she has signaled interest in — if that is you, frame the transition directly in your query.
Avoid querying with science fiction, fantasy, YA, children's books, business books, or religious titles regardless of what older sources may suggest — her current agency page excludes all of them explicitly.