Elle Ayatch (pronounced like “Ash”) is the executive director of Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, the executive editor of Bench Press, and the executive co-director of Lithaus. She loves all sports (but mostly hockey) and is looking for the next Elle Kennedy, Abby Jimenez, Stephanie Archer, Emily Henry, Peyton Corrine, Grace Reilly, Claire Contreras, Jenny Holiday, Emily Rath, Meghan Quinn, Helena Hunting, Ali Hazelwood, Jasmine Guillory, and Talia Hibbert for Bench Press.
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Queries: Sports Romance only. (Agents use BP email; authors use website)
FFP: flatironfoothills @ gmail.com (No submission queries!)
BP: bench.press.romance @ gmail.com
Lithaus: flatironfoothills @ gmail.com
Leah Angstman is the executive editor of Alternating Current Press (founded by Leah in 1993), the managing editor of The Coil online magazine, an editor-at-large for Resurrection Men, and the executive co-director of Lithaus. She’s made up of equal parts Broadway musicals, French Revolution trivia, Colorado Avalanche and women’s ice hockey, 1930s-Hollywood Canadian Mounties, nautical lore, German Shepherd fur, Bruce Springsteen, celebrity boyfriends who don’t know they’re her boyfriends, mountain hikes, chai lattés, punk rock, comic books, exclamation points!, American history lessons between 1636 and 1901 minus the Civil War, and a lineage of English teachers. She reads cholera death records and 1800s land deeds for fun, and she’s either not the person you bring to the party, or she’s exactly the person you bring. Professionally, she has also been an editor/fact-checker for Pacific Standard, Underscore News, Mother Jones, Departures, Smithsonian, Dossier, and Airelles, and she is the author of Out Front the Following Sea, Shoot the Horses First, and Falcon in the Dive.
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Queries: Literary Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Hybrid, Plays. (Agents use ACP email; authors use ACP website or The Coil website)
ACP: altcurrentpress @ gmail.com
The Coil: coil.acpress @ gmail.com
RM: Submit queries to Ed Krassler
Lithaus: Email Elle Ayatch at FFP
Torgo (sable German Shepherd) and Laika (black German Shepherd) are unpaid interns for Alternating Current Press. Torgo is a graduate of the University of Collarado (Go, Barkaloes!), where he received his Dogtorate in Anthropawlogy with a minor in Barketing. He considers himself an armchair s’collar of Ruffsian Literature, naming Fyodor Dogstoyevsky, Boris Pawsternak, and Vladimir Nabarkov among his favorites. (We tell him to read more women, but he says they aren’t punny enough. Boys, amiright?)
Laika almost received her Barkchelor’s in Wagriculture, but she ended up dropping out of Front Mange Community College to pursue a life in the Fine Farts. After a second brief attempt at Arapawhoe Community College, she found her way back to nature, and now she’s a full-time Woofworker, sculpting chew sticks out of tree limbs. Her motto in life is WHY SO SERIOUS?, so she’s an enjoyer of George Bernard Paw, Bark Twain, Jane Pawsten, and Margaret Atwoof.
Lesley Mackling (she/her) is the co-editor of Augustan Age. She is looking for the next Sylvia Plath, Hanif Abdurraqib, Ada Limón, Maggie Smith, Emma Bolden, Amanda Gorman, Saeed Jones, Natalie Diaz, Micah Ling, Rebecca Schumejda, and Alfred Lord Tennyson.
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Queries: Poetry only. (Agents use email; authors use website)
Email: augustan.age.poetry @ gmail.com
Greg Garnett is the co-editor of Augustan Age. He is looking for the next Ted Kooser, Ocean Vuong, Louise Glück, Natasha Trethewey, Tiana Clark, Franny Choi, Claudia Rankine, Ilya Kaminsky, Jericho Brown, Joy Harjo, Wisława Szymborska, and Robin Coste Lewis. Greg works mostly behind-the-scenes and likes to keep it that way.
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Queries: Submit queries to Lesley Mackling
Sarah Van Horn is a Boulder native and the executive editor of Curiouser & Curiouser. She wants to bring back the challenging, undiluted young-readers’ book style from the 70s through early 90s, and is looking for the next Avi, Harper Lee, Cynthia Voigt, Judy Blume, Beverly Clearly, Gary Paulsen, Elizabeth George Speare, Bette Greene, Scott O’Dell, Katherine Paterson, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Jack London, L. M. Montgomery, and Shel Silverstein. She devours series in the old-style vein of Goosebumps, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Boxcar Children, Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley, and Choose Your Own Adventure.
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Queries: Children’s, Early Readers, Middle-Grade, Young Adult. (Agents use email; authors use website)
Email: curiouser.curiouser.press @ gmail.com
Christina Waltman lives just outside Boulder and is the executive editor of Dyslexicon. She is excited to read what you are writing, and she’s thrilled to be a forerunner of bringing Hi-Lo books of interest to adults, a long overdue market to increase accessibility for adult readers who have historically been overlooked.
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Queries: Hi-Lo for adults only. (Agents use email; authors use website)
Email: dyslexiconbooks @ gmail.com
Aubree Barnhart is the co-editor of Past Imperfect. She is looking for the next Toni Morrison, Percival Everett, Zadie Smith, Marlon James, Willa Cather, Heather O’Neill, Edith Wharton, Victor Hugo, Paulette Jiles, Geraldine Brooks, Louis Bayard, Danielle Dutton, Nicola Griffith, Gore Vidal, Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray, and Lalita Tademy.
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Queries: Historical fiction only. (Agents use email; authors use website)
Email: dyslexiconbooks @ gmail.com
Jen Hobbs is the co-editor of Past Imperfect. She is looking for the next Patrick O’Brian, James Clavell, Hilary Mantel, E. L. Doctorow, Michael Shaara, Zoe Sivak, Stephanie Dray, Tim O’Brien, Allison Pataki, Bernard Cornwell, Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy, Kathleen Grissom, Dewey Lambdin, Robert Morgan, Alexander Kent, and Stuart Turton.
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Queries: Submit queries to Aubree Barnhart
Ed Krassler is the managing editor of Resurrection Men. He thinks his dad-jokes are hilarious and that this illustrated avatar makes him look 10 years younger than he is.
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Queries: Reprints only. (Agents use email; authors use website)
Email: resurrection.men.press @ gmail.com
Kulthum Ikram Abubakar is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. She is a writer and English tutor whose love for language runs deep. She believes great writing isn’t just about style; it is shaped by the eras it emerges from and the history beneath it. Growing up entering poetry competitions, she now spends her time annotating poems simply for the joy of pulling apart each line. She is fascinated by the way history and literature mirror each other, whether through Shakespeare’s political undercurrents, the emotional depth in Hosseini’s novels, or the raw introspection of Plath’s poetry. Kulthum is also deeply drawn to religious-themed texts, works that explore faith, devotion, doubt, and the human search for meaning across time. She is especially moved by writing with emotional weight and historical context, where feeling and form work hand in hand. She reads widely, from classic fiction to contemporary essays, always in search of work that stirs something real. Outside of words, she finds comfort in cats, quiet corners, and anything that stretches the imagination.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
April Bell, PhD, is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. She is a deaf cancer biologist eager to see her name in print. Born and raised in Chicago, her undergraduate degree is from the University of Chicago, and her PhD is from Northwestern University. When she is not writing or doing science, she can be found on a couch, with a cat (or two), a friend (or three), a great TV show, and snacks. Always snacks.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Lucy Carr Icard is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. She is a nontraditional MFA student at Southern New Hampshire University. She returned to her studies after a 35-year hiatus. In 1990, she dropped out of college, sailed to France, and stayed. After her daughters completed their master’s degrees, she decided it was her turn. Passionate about writing and literature, in all logic, she is focusing on writing and earning her MFA. She is currently writing a contemporary/literary fiction novel. Her work has been published in The Penmen Review and October Hill Magazine.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Talicia J. is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. She is a Black queer poet and teaching artist whose poetry career lives inside a color-coded Notion dashboard and an ever-growing pile of voice memos. She writes toward reclamation, clarity, and the kinds of questions that don’t have easy answers. Her books include Falling in Love with Picking Myself Up and Taking Back the Body — which won a chapbook contest and still makes her do a little shoulder shimmy when she sees it on someone’s shelf. She co-runs an online writing retreat built on care and curiosity and hosts a monthly submission space to help poets keep showing up to their work. She’s known to proclaim, “Is it even a virtual workshop if there’s no technical difficulties!?!” — usually while in the middle of experiencing a technical difficulty. Her poems have appeared in Torch Magazine, Fahmidan, Just Femme and Dandy, Peach Fuzz, Button Poetry, and elsewhere. She’s powered by snacks, a deep love for BTS, and her 10-year-old, sassy Norwegian Elkhound named Lola — who insists on being listed here. When it comes to craft, she’s especially drawn to well-placed kennings and the turn a good volta can make.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Anastasia Jill is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. They are a queer writer living in Central Florida. They’ve dreamed of being an author since they first read Harriet the Spy in the third grade and have been working toward it ever since. They have a bachelor’s in English and writing, and have held several editorial positions at various magazines and literary presses. When not reading or writing, they can be found playing Overwatch, pampering their very spoiled cat, visiting their local library, or rewatching The Golden Girls for the millionth time. (And can quote most episodes verbatim). Over their decade-long career, they have been nominated for Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and several other honors. Their work has been featured or is upcoming with Poets.org, Sundog Lit, Flash Fiction Online, Contemporary Verse 2, Orca, and other outlets. They are currently working on their first novel.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Emma McKenna is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. She is from Kansas City, Missouri, and is currently pursuing her MA in Renaissance Literature at the University of Alabama. She received her BS degrees in English and Philosophy from Missouri State University. Her current research explores beast fables, love, and pedagogy from the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. When she isn’t reading The Riverside Chaucer, she’s probably walking, writing, or crocheting a scarf because she’s too stubborn to learn new crochet patterns.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Alexandra (Alex) Schwabe is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. She is a writer of whatever she feels like writing but mainly poetry and fiction. She has worked as a reader for several literary magazines and is passionate about the literary industry. She can also be found getting obsessed with TV shows and video games ten years after they were pop culturally relevant, creating epic edits in her head to her favorite songs, and reading from her ever-increasing TBR pile.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Grace Schwenk is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints and a writer from Missoula, Montana. Most of her writing is done from a fire lookout in the Salmon River Mountain Range of Idaho. When not writing or looking for smokes, she can be found getting lost in the trees with her fluffy white dog, Selway. Her debut memoir, The Greenhorn, won the 2026 Sowell Emerging Writers Prize and will be published by Texas Tech University Press in the spring of 2027.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Henry Stevens is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. He is a writer and editor from Halifax County, Virginia. He majored in history while studying in China at Duke Kunshan University and completed his MFA at Old Dominion University. A former runner and amateur soccer player, he enjoys binding chapbooks, riding horses, and playing Dungeons & Dragons. He believes that listening to an audiobook counts as reading. Henry’s fiction has been published in New Plains Review, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Artwife, Nude Bruce Review, Teach. Write., Please See Me, and The Gravity of the Thing. He currently reads for the science fiction/fantasy magazine The Colored Lens and the literary magazine The Adroit Journal and is pursuing a career in publishing.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Laurien Stewart is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. She is a writer and poet originally from Michigan and currently based in Colorado. She values reading widely and diversely, and considers herself as meaningfully changed by Pulitzer Prize winners as she’s been by sports romance. She loves queer stories of all kinds, and is most often drawn to books that are both tender and provocative. Every week, she thrifts for vintage clothing and antique books, eats pad thai from a food truck, and rides her bike to her favorite local brewery. (Routines are very important.) Her proudest achievements in recent years have been giving up caffeine and graduating from the Denver Publishing Institute. She’s spent the last decade working as an instructional designer, but she’s grateful now to be focused on her true passions of reading and writing.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Amber Terranova is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. She is a grad student, writer, and editor from Long Island. As a proud New Yorker, she loves a good BEC (if you know, you know), the use of excessive hand gestures while talking, and walking at a maximum speed everywhere she goes. She is currently earning an MFA from Lindenwood University in Missouri and expects to graduate in the spring of 2026. When she’s not preoccupied with writing workshops and seminars, she’s usually walking her cats or shopping for antiques. She also, unapologetically, is obsessed with all things quintessentially British: sarcastic humor, afternoon teas, The Great British Bake Off, Jane Austen, Downton Abbey, Elton John, and Premier League football (Go, Chelsea!). Amber is an assistant editor for The Lindenwood Review for the 2024/2025 school year. In addition, she has done freelance writing and content creation for her local library, mainly on environmental, culinary, and cultural topics for K-12 educational activities and events.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
Caryl Townsend (he/they) is a submissions reader for Flatiron Foothills Publications, LLC, imprints. Caryl is a poet living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, originating from Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He spends most of his days reading poetry, watching pro-wrestling and playing with his cat. They have been published in Fruitslice and in Washington College’s undergraduate publication, Collegian.
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Queries: Submit queries through appropriate press website
