Maria Bell is a literary agent with Sterling Lord Literistic.
“I am looking primarily for adult fiction, especially the following:
- literary fiction with strong narrative momentum
- LGBTQ fiction
- Rom coms (especially queer ones) that play with but also diverge from common tropes
- Stories involving humans’ interactions with animals and/or wilderness
- Grounded stories that involve elements of magical realism
- Coming-of-age stories that center the post-teenage, new-to-adulting years
- Mystery/Suspense with an unexpected twist
Maria joined Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. in 2019 and works with Doug Stewart and Neeti Madan. Maria is drawn to literary fiction that breaks conventions in form, voice and character. In both fiction and nonfiction, she’s partial to stories involving the natural world, queer identities, baseball, and all those that grapple with conflicts and truths from which most of us instinctively distance ourselves. Maria graduated from Vassar College with a degree in English and sociology. She grew up in Minnesota with goats as pets, and now lives in Brooklyn with her grumpy turtle and a one-eyed cat.