Why Handspun?
About the Agency
Our Agents
Courtney Miller-Callihan (she/her/hers) founded Handspun Literary Agency in 2016, after more than ten years with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. Her eclectic list has a strong emphasis on work from underrepresented voices and includes women’s fiction, historical fiction, mysteries, romance and rom-coms, horror, science fiction & fantasy, YA novels, humor, and nonfiction.
A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A., Literature), and Johns Hopkins University (M.A., English), she lives in San Diego with her family.
She is always looking for stories she can’t stop reading.
For adult fiction, Courtney represents a wide range of genres, including historical fiction, women’s fiction, romance and rom-coms (all subgenres except inspirational), mystery novels, and speculative fiction.
For nonfiction, Courtney represents work targeting all age groups (children and adults). Though she will consider nonfiction on any topic, work that deals primarily with issues of religion or spirituality is unlikely to be a good fit.
She is not currently accepting middle-grade, early reader, or picture book submissions. #mswl
Ben Miller-Callihan (he/him/his) joined Handspun Literary Agency as an agent in 2019, after working behind the scenes since the agency’s founding in tech support and bookkeeping roles, as well as more than a decade teaching high school English.
He is looking for quirky, cozy, character-driven fantasy, sci-fi, and other speculative fiction, as well as crossover fiction a la The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and The Lost Apothecary. He also loves the macabre (for all ages), off-the-beaten-path folklore, Deaf culture and community, and anything food-related. Writers from marginalized communities are especially welcomed. #mswl
A graduate of the University of Kentucky (B.A., English), and New York University (M.A., English Education), he lives in San Diego with his human, canine, and kitchen appliance families.
Cheyenne Faircloth (she/her/hers) joined Handspun Literary Agency as an agency assistant in 2021, after graduating with a B.F.A. in Creative Writing, and a certification in Publishing from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Before Handspun, Cheyenne interned as an editorial assistant at Howland Literary, and was a member of the editorial and acquisition teams at Lookout Books, an independent publisher that is home to National Book Award Finalist Edith Pearlman. Cheyenne also independently managed a book blog where she collaborated with both major and indie publishers to promote upcoming titles and participated in various promotional activities centered around supporting debut authors.
Cheyenne is most interested in manuscripts from historically excluded communities, i.e. queer, BIPOC, AAPI, neurodivergent, and disabled voices.
Her interests include romantasy, cozy fantasy, speculative fiction, young adult and adult fantasies with political elements and well-grounded world building, Southern Gothic stories with speculative elements, folkloric and atmospheric elements; rom-coms; feminist retellings of mythology; and new takes on popular creatures of myth. #mswl
She is not currently accepting middle grade, picture books, contemporary YA, or nonfiction.