About this New Literary Agent Spotlight series: We love spotlighting and profiling new literary agents —such as Ashley Collom of Thompson Literary—because they are actively seeking new writers and constructing a client list.

Literary Agent Bio: Ashley grew up in Plano, Texas and escaped as soon as she was able: first to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where she attended Coe College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude, and then to New York City in 2014. She started out in the publishing business as an assistant at DeFiore and Company, and within a year was selling books as an agent. She joined Thompson Literary in January 2019.

What to Submit to Ashley: She continues to grow her list with nonfiction of all stripes: narrative, cookbooks, art books, illustrated gift books, books that dance with the intricacies of gender and race, and mind/body/spirit titles. In short, Ashley’s looking for anything nonfiction that can be aptly described as feminist, queer or witchy.

How to Query Ashley: Full details on website. Please submit your queries to submissions@thompsonliterary.com. See the agency’s online guidelines: Thompson Literary Submission Guidelines

ATTEND A WRITERS CONFERENCE IN 2019. Here are some writers conferences WQP staffers are either speaking at or wholeheartedly endorse:

• March 29, 2019: St. Louis Writers Conference (St. Louis, MO)
• March 30, 2019: Kansas City Writing Workshop (Kansas City, MO)
• April 13, 2019: North Carolina Writing Workshop (Charlotte, NC)
• April 27, 2019: Seattle Writing Workshop (Seattle, WA)
• May 4, 2019: Writing Conference of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)
• May 11, 2019: San Diego Writing Workshop (San Diego, CA)
• May 18, 2019: Cincinnati Writing Workshop (Cincinnati, OH)
• June 8, 2019: Florida Writing Workshop (Tampa, FL)
• June 15, 2019: Brooklyn Writing Workshop (Brooklyn, NY)
• June 29, 2019: Writing Workshop of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
• July 13, 2019: Chesapeake Writing Workshop (Washington, D.C.)
• July 27, 2019: Colorado Writing Workshop (Denver, CO)
• August 9, 2019: Sacramento Writing Workshop (Sacramento, CA)
• August 10, 2019: Writing Workshop of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA)
• August 17, 2019: Toronto Writing Workshop (Toronto, Canada)
• Sept. 7, 2019: Boston Writing Workshop (Boston, MA)
• and click here for more 2019 writers conference suggestions — in Cleveland, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Houston, Austin, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Philadelphia.