ALLISON HELLEGERS

Literary Agent and Foreign Rights Director

Stimola Literary Studio

Allison is primarily agenting middle-grade and young adult fiction, and she has also worked on picture books, adult fiction and non-fiction. She is actively looking for voice-driven submissions that come with a strong, distinctive pitch. For all ages, she is searching for authors from marginalized communities, and she loves when something feels especially brave and boundary pushing. Feminist/environmental themes are always appealing, as well as books that engage social-emotional issues and can be enjoyed by young readers and adults. Allison loves traveling and is drawn to novels from different countries and cultures, especially where the setting is a character in the story.

In young adult, Allison appreciates when books give readers credit by tackling issues and topics that feel taboo or “too old” for a teenager. For YA rom-coms, she loves an enemies-to-lovers trope, impossible love-triangles, and she is looking for more diverse protagonists to fill these roles. She also loves modern retellings of heroines from different historical periods, multi-generational family stories, and novels-in-verse that evoke an urgency that necessitates the need for verse. Some of her favorite YA authors include Jandy Nelson, Nicola Yoon, Angie Thomas, Ibi Zoboi, Elizabeth Acevedo, Cecily von Ziegesar, Phillip Pullman, and Suzanne Collins.

In middle grade, she loves beautifully told magical realism and contemporary fiction that emotionally resonates. She is always drawn to family stories and historical fiction (especially unique perspectives from popular times in history) and she loves when the writing feels especially authentic to the middle grade experience of being an outsider. She is always looking for a strong, female-led mystery series and is also curious to see more middle-grade graphic novels. Animal stories are included in her forthcoming books. Some of her favorite middle-grade authors are Jason Reynolds, Katherine Applegate, Raina Telgemeier, Renée Watson, Tae Keller, Beverly Cleary, Jean Craighead George, Gary Paulsen, and Judy Blume.

A few of Allison’s upcoming books: 

• Rebecca Caprara’s Spin, pitched as Blood Water Paint meets Circe in a feminist reimagining of Ovid's myth of Arachne, the original spider girl; following a young weaver learning to find her place in the world, while also seeking to amplify the voices of other women, even if it means defying the gods.
  
  
• Welsh author Caryl Lewis's Seed, following a boy who doesn’t have much until his eccentric grandfather gifts him with a very special seed, and soon everything changes.
  
  
• Ayesha Harruna Attah’s The Deep Blue Between set in 19th-century Brazil, Ghana, and Nigeria, a dual narrative following the journeys of two sisters who try to find their way back to each other after being separated—even as they remain connected through dreams.

Allison’s take on PCCWW: “It would be an honor to participate in this seminar. I’m very much looking forward to it!”

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