I’m Julie Stevenson, a literary agent representing award-winning and internationally bestselling authors. I also take on a select number of freelance editing and consulting projects each year, separate from my agenting work at Massie, McQuilkin & Altman in New York.

With more than twenty years in publishing, I offer an experienced editorial eye and practical guidance to help writers strengthen their work and plan their next steps.

Editing & Consulting

I offer developmental editing for fiction, nonfiction, and book proposals. My written evaluations identify strengths and specific areas for improvement, with recommendations on structure, pacing, character, voice, and clarity, supported by page and chapter notes.

Whether your manuscript has stalled, needs a fresh perspective, or is approaching submission to agents and publishers, we can work toward a clear revision plan. I accept only a small number of full developmental edits each year and often book several months in advance.

I also offer consultations on query letters, revision, audience, and publishing questions:

• 30 minutes: Focused guidance, including an advance read of your query letter and up to 10 pages.

• One hour: A deeper discussion of your project or publishing strategy, including an advance read of your query letter and up to 20 pages.

Professional Background

For more than twenty years as a literary agent, I’ve worked closely with writers to develop their manuscripts before bringing them to publishers. That editorial work has always been central to my agenting practice, helping writers see what a manuscript can become, identifying what is and isn’t working, and considering questions of structure, character, pacing, voice, and audience. Through Stevenson Editorial, I’m able to offer that same kind of developmental guidance to writers outside my agency work.

I’ve agented #1 New York Times bestsellers, including Kathleen Glasgow’s international bestseller GIRL IN PIECES, as well as books that have received some of the literary world’s most prestigious honors, including Viet Thanh Nguyen’s THE SYMPATHIZER, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Other honors received by books and authors I’ve represented include the MWA Edgar Award, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, National Jewish Book Award, The Whiting Award, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Southern Book Prize, The Pacific Northwest Book Award, The Montana Prize, The High Plains Book Award, The Audie Award, the Caldecott Honor, as well as O. Henry Prizes and Pushcart Prizes.

Books I’ve represented have been selected for Barack Obama’s reading lists, the Barnes & Noble Discover series, the Book of the Month Club, and have received national attention from major outlets such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, CBS Sunday Morning, People, Granta, The Paris Review, and others. My clients’ work spans literary and commercial fiction, young adult literature, memoir, narrative nonfiction, and graphic narrative.

I hold a BA in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. My training as both a reader and a writer continues to inform the way I approach manuscripts, with close attention to craft, language, and the larger possibilities of the work.

Speaking & Teaching

I have taught or presented at Tin House Summer Writers Conference, Yale Writers’ Workshop, San Miguel Writers Conference, Lighthouse Writers Workshop,The Writers’ League of Texas, among many others, as well as many MFA programs. I welcome inquiries about teaching and speaking at workshops, conferences, and literary events.

Editorial Work & Representation

My paid editorial services are independent of my agency work and do not include or guarantee representation or publication. As a member of the Association of American Literary Agents, I follow its ethical guidelines for paid editorial work.

If you are looking for a literary agent to submit your book to publishers and negotiate a publishing contract, please send me a query letter through Massie, McQuilkin & Altman. That is a separate process from hiring me for editorial feedback or publishing advice through Stevenson Editorial. You do not need to purchase editorial services to be considered for literary representation.

Gabriella Graceffo

Editor

Gabriella Graceffo is an editor with Stevenson Editorial, where she offers developmental editing for fiction, memoir, and narrative nonfiction, as well as editorial work on full-length poetry collections. She works closely with writers to identify what is strongest in a manuscript and what can be deepened or refined, offering substantive feedback on structure, character, pacing, tension, voice, and language. For poetry collections, she provides close attention to individual poems as well as guidance on sequencing, structure, and the arc of the collection as a whole.

Gabi is especially well suited to writers seeking a rigorous, thoughtful professional edit of a literary manuscript. Drawing on her academic work in literary trauma narratives, she has particular expertise in writing that explores violence, trauma, and difficult experience, including the craft challenges involved in putting seemingly unspeakable experiences on the page. Her editorial approach combines close attention to language with an understanding of the larger architecture and emotional movement of a work.

Gabi holds an MFA in Poetry, an MA in Literature, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Montana. She began her editorial career at Southwest Review and went on to work as a publishing fellow at the Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Lab and as an intern at Copper Canyon Press. She currently serves as managing editor of Poetry Northwest and program coordinator at the National Poetry Series. Her writing has appeared in CRAFT, Gulf Coast, Poets & Writers, and elsewhere, and her work has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Vermont Studio Center.