Their heart belongs to stories that feature POC and LGBTQ+ protagonists. Victoria is primarily seeking literary fiction, upmarket fiction, and queer romance. They are also open to literary-leaning sci-fi (grounded, set in the near future) and historical fiction (set in the recent past).
Before joining The Caldwell Agency, Victoria worked in the editorial department of Oxford University Press for over six years. They have an MFA in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. In their downtime, they like to write (currently working on a novel) and perform with their band (Late Stage Dirtbags). Victoria lives in Southern California with their chosen family: their wife, one of their best friends, and their one-eyed chihuahua, Bug.
Things Victoria is drawn to in stories:
POC characters
LGBTQ+ characters
mentally ill characters
neurodivergent characters
chronically ill and physically disabled characters
characters who’ve had difficult childhoods
characters who are repressed
characters who’ve felt like outsiders for their whole lives
characters who want something or someone desperately
coming of age stories (traditional and late-stage)
dysfunctional family dynamics
chosen family and close friendships (whether wholesome, complicated, or toxic)
friends to lovers
They are not a good fit for:
White, male, cishet* protagonists
Stories without people of color
Cishet* romance
Sports romance
Fake dating
Science fiction set in the distant future, on a version of earth that is unrecognizable, or in space
Fantasy of any kind
Action/adventure
*cishet = cisgender and heterosexual
Some of their favorite books published within the past decade:
Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Elaine Castillo, America Is Not the Heart
Paul Mendez, Rainbow Milk
Ling Ma, Severance
Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun
Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House
Casey McQuiston, One Last Stop