Lisa (@_LisaRodgers) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and received her bachelor’s degree in English literature from California State University, Sacramento. In 2012, she moved to New York City to attend NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute and joined the JABberwocky team soon after. When not reading, she rotates between a variety of hobbies (and sometimes more than one at a time!): knitting, cycling, jogging, playing board & video games, listening to podcasts, and eating way too many dumplings.
How to Query Me
Lisa is closed to unsolicited queries.
For all other contact needs, you may reach me at lisa [at] awfulagent [dot] com. Unsolicited queries sent to this email address will be deleted, unread.
What I’m Looking For
Fantasy and Science Fiction: Complex magical/technological/political/social systems and cohesive worldbuilding are all good things in my book, as are moral quandaries and ambiguity. I’m also very interested in seeing female protagonists, non-Western settings, and protagonists from marginalized groups. I’m particularly drawn to characters whose struggles include not just “the quest”, but also choices that challenge their beliefs or values, or how technology/magic can affect what it means to be human. I love SFF of all stripes, from epic fantasy to cozier stories to space opera and military SF. Large-scale stories are fantastic, but I’m also very interested in smaller-scale stories, where the focus is on a particular group of characters and not necessarily the fate of the galaxy.
Horror: You know that scene from Friends where Rachel is reading The Shining and nearly brains Joey with a potato masher when he startles her? I’m looking for horror submissions that evoke that feeling. I love horror that goes a little left of center, whether it’s mostly contemporary with a hint of supernatural or more firmly speculative. Birdbox (the book), Get Out, A Quiet Place, and The Haunting of Hill House are all great examples of what I’m looking for. I want to read these under the covers with a flashlight and be terrified!
I’m also interested in YA fantasy, horror, science fiction, thriller, and romance.
I’m particularly fond of non-traditional narrative structures: epistolary, non-linear, found-document, etc.
It should go without saying, but: I am happy to consider queries by persons, or featuring protagonists, of any race, color, creed, religion, national citizenship/origin, gender or sexual orientation, disability, age, or physical appearance, in any and all of the above genres.
A few of my favorite (non-client) books, in no particular order:
BLACK SUN RISING (C.S. Friedman), SPIN STATE (Chris Moriarty), THE COMPANY (K.J. Parker), MAGIC’S PAWN (Mercedes Lackey), THE BLACK PRISM (Brent Weeks), THE WHITE DRAGON (Anne McCaffrey), THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS (Rae Carson), THE MARTIAN (Andy Weir), WINTERGIRLS (Laurie Halse Anderson), PERSUASION (Jane Austen), FOREIGNER (C.J. Cherryh), DRAGON PRINCE (Melanie Rawn), WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE (Shirley Jackson), THE FIFTH SEASON (N.K. Jemisin), ANCILLARY JUSTICE (Ann Leckie), THE HATE U GIVE (Angie Thomas), BIRDBOX (Josh Malerman), SADIE (Courtney Summers), THE MERCIFUL CROW (Margaret Owen), THE HAZEL WOOD (Melissa Albert), WILDER GIRLS (Rory Power), THE LUMINOUS DEAD (Caitlin Starling), SHIFT and DUST (Hugh Howey), THE MOUNTAIN IN THE SEA (Ray Nayler), THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER (Andrea Stewart), OCEAN’S ECHO (Everina Maxwell), A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE (Arkady Martine), LOCK EVERY DOOR (Riley Sager), THE ATLAS PARADOX (Olivie Blake)
