Are you Elisa Saphier?
Claim this profile to manage your wishlist, control what writers see, and receive AI-ranked submissions — free, always.
Elisa Saphier
MacGregor & Luedeke
Deep dive on Elisa Saphier
Sign in to run a deep-dive web search on Elisa Saphier — we'll pull public interviews, MSWL posts, and recent deals into a short summary of what they love and hate to see in the slush pile.
Currently Looking For
I am closed to submissions and will not read your query if you send me one. My hope is to open officially again late in 2026. Inbox transparency: currently in Nov for fulls and mid March for partials and for pitch/conference requests. (I keep this current so you can always check back and see where I am. I also try to post semi-regular updates on Twitter and Blue Sky; I always respond to a query eventually.) I am currently most looking for genre manuscripts to balance out the more heavily literary list I currently have and I will be updating the below with changes and more specifics once I reopen; below is my old MSWL and it will be shifting. I am always most excited to find great writing and full characters, regardless of genre. I am focused on uplifting marginalized voices and want to be a part of seeing publishing become more equitable and less unbalanced of underrepresented writers. While I am mostly genre agnostic (quality of writing and everything else is much more important to me as both a reader and an agent) I gravitate more strongly toward stories of identity and self discovery in literary fiction, psychological thrillers and mysteries, memoir, and queer romance. I love to cry though a book but am not morally opposed to happy endings. In all genres I prefer standalone books over series. I am not actively looking for science fiction or fantasy, although do keep reading queries that excite me so I’ll say that in spec fic I strongly prefer “SFF lite,” and am turned off by vampires/aliens/shapeshifters etc. I am almost never the best fit for high fantasy, although touches of magic can be okay. I do have a significant soft spot no matter the genre for stories that reflect back our world, that challenge the status quo, that show the truth of white supremacy/patriarchy/oppression/trauma. I love character-heavy books that start conversations about race, class, gender, etc. But I do read almost anything and I’ve been a bookseller for many years and so have a good feeling for what people are looking for, even if it’s not my go-to. What I’m most looking for in my inbox, in no particular order: Adult: literary psychological thrillers/mystery; queer romance (especially but not exclusively friends to lovers and forced proximity); literary fiction; literary memoir; stories of marginalized people where the marginalization isn’t the story; dark academia; suburban malaise; amateur theater Young Adult: found family; queer coming of age; emerging awareness of identity; amateur theater Middle Grade: true to life fiction; questioning of self and belonging; amateur theater A few themes/genres I am not a good fit for: pop-culture/fashion; praising religion (don’t be fooled if you’ve found me because my agency has lots of Christian authors, I am the anomaly there); hard sff or horror; World War II; shape-shifting/vampires/zombies/etc; picture books or really anything for kids younger than upper middle grade; technology; power dynamic relationships in romance;
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be emailed to elisa@macgregorliterary.com I am currently closed to submissions! Once I am open again, send a query with your pitch, synopsis, and first few pages directly to my email. I’ll get back to you just as soon as I can! (Which won’t be as soon as I’d like.) I’m not comfortable with formality so feel free to just call me Elisa. Vital Info elisa@macgregorliterary.com @ElisaSaphier @elisasaphier.bsky.social Website
Query this agent
Write query letter →Sign in to write a query letter tailored to this agent, then send through our platform.