Erin was born and raised in Arizona, and founded EMLA in Flagstaff in 1999 after a 7-year career as an editor at a regional publishing house. As founder of EMLA she has focused not just on helping authors and illustrators to publish books for children and teens, but on building careers. In 2016, she relocated the agency headquarters to southern Maine. Her clients' notices in addition to hitting bestseller lists include a Caldecott Honor (plus writer clients seeing their books get Caldecott silver and gold), a Newbery Honor, a Sibert Medal, Stonewall Medals, APALA silver and gold, an American Indian Youth Literature Honor, a National Jewish Book Award finalist, a Schneider Award, and multiple Edgar, Sydney Taylor, Américas, Golden Kite, Jane Addams, and Orbis Pictus awards or honors, among others.

You can find Erin on Twitter @agentemurph. She accepts queries by request or referral, or from people who have attended conferences where she spoke, at Query Manager. 

Joan is a Senior Agent with EMLA, working from her home office in Massachusetts. She represents all forms of children's and young adult literature, but is most excited by a strong lyrical voice, tight plotting with surprising twists and turns, and stories told with heart and resonance that will stand the test of time.

An EMLA client herself, Joan is also the author of numerous books for children, most recently the Princess Juniper series, the picture books Ghost in the House, Elf in the House, Bunny Bus, and The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies, and the "non-fiction with a twist" series Two Truths and a Lie, co-written with Laurie Ann Thompson.—Her next novel, the magical adventure The Train of Lost Things, is forthcoming from Philomel in March 2018. When she is not on the phone, answering email, or writing, you will most likely find Joan curled up with a book. Or baking something delicious. Or talking about something delicious she's baked. Really, after books and food, what else is there worth saying?

You can read more about Joan's writing and agenting process here.

Joan does not have any upcoming conferences and events scheduled at this time.

Tricia is the "Pacific Northwest branch" of EMLA—born and raised in Oregon, and now lives in Seattle. After 16 years of working as a developmental and production-based editor (from kids books to college textbooks, but mostly college textbooks), she joined the EMLA team in March 2011 as a social media strategist and began working as an agent in October 2011.

As senior agent, Tricia represents picture books/chapter books that look at the world in a unique and unusual way, with characters that are alive both on and off the page, and middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction that offers strong worldbuilding, wounded narrators, and stories that grab a reader and won't let go.

Tricia loves hiking/walking/running, camping out in the woods with her family (her husband and their dogs), and collecting rocks. She loves BBC America and anything British. She has way too many books and not enough bookshelves. She’s obsessed with pattern and color and is always listening to music (playlists for every situation and project) and lately has spent her spare time draping and fitting a half-size mannequin the size of a doll (this after binge-watching all of Project Runway).

www.trishlawrence.com

You can find Tricia on Twitter @authorblogger. She accepts queries by request or referral, or from people who have attended conferences where she part of the faculty via the contact page on EMLA or the contact page at her website.

Upcoming 2022 Events:

Southern Breeze Moving Toward Mastery March 19, 2022 but consults are the week of March 21, 2022

SCBWI Carolinas Annual Fall Conference September 30-October 2, 2022 

Kevin has been a publishing professional for more than 25 years and has held positions at Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Disney. He has edited such best-selling and award-winning writers and illustrators as Cynthia Rylant, Mark Teague, Dav Pilkey, Angela Johnson, Laurie Halse Anderson, Matt Cordell, Lauren Thompson, Derek Anderson, Jane Dyer, Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black, Loren Long, LeUyen Pham, and Kadir Nelson, to name but a few.

In addition to editing, he has written close to a dozen picture books, including Chugga Chugga Choo Choo and My Truck Is Stuck.

He lives with his husband and dog in a 200-year-old farm house in the Hudson Valley.

As an agent, Kevin's focus primarily is on writer-illustrators and diverse voices.

Kevin does not have any upcoming conference appearances scheduled at this time.

Tara Gonzalez is an Associate Agent at EMLA, as well as the assistant to Erin Murphy and social media coordinator for EMLA. She's located in Florida, although she's currently plotting how to make her way back to London, where she studied abroad for several months during her undergrad.

Tara is actively building her client list. She loves all ages of children's literature, but her passion is in young adult and middle grade novels. Her taste spans across broad ranges of genres, from contemporary, historical, literary, to adventure and fantasy. She loves characters and stories that resonate, and strong voices.

Beyond books, Tara loves movies, cats, buying things she probably doesn't need on Etsy, and getting hooked on TV shows that get cancelled after one season. She recently graduated with her master's degree in Media and Communication Studies, and is always looking for the next opportunity to travel.

Tara does not currently have any conference appearances scheduled.

Miranda Paul (she/her) holds a B.A. in English from St. Mary's College of Maryland and has worked with students (and campers) in every grade from Pre-K through college. A co-founding member of the nonprofit organization We Need Diverse Books, Miranda currently serves as its Mentorship chairperson. In her other lives, Miranda has worked as a freelance writer and journalist, and is the award-winning author of more than a dozen picture books including One Plastic Bag, Water is Water, 10 Little Ninjas, I Am Farmer, Nine Months, and Little Libraries, Big Heroes. Writers and Illustrators may query using the contact form or Query Tracker—Miranda has her sights on authors and author-illustrators who create everything from board books through YA and she is interested in both fiction and nonfiction (and those weird manuscripts that fall somewhere in between). She loves picture books, novels, memoirs, and nonfiction works that are clever, original, and emotionally gripping. Miranda lives in Wisconsin with her husband, author Baptiste Paul, their children, and an assortment of resident and foster animals.

Dennis handles agency accounting, organization, and development in the Maine office, including planning the annual client retreat. He prefers the less formal title of "bon vivant."

Co-agency for foreign and translation rights. Contact Alexandra Devlin with inquiries, alexandradevlin@rightspeople.com.

Co-agency for dramatic and performance rights. 

Co-agency for audio rights. Contact Rebecca Mancini (rightsmix@gmail.com) with inquiries, 973-900-7876.

Website