Mary Cummings is a literary agent and the founder of Great River Literary.

“I represent fiction, literary nonfiction and poetry for children and teens, from board and picture books to middle grade (including chapter books) and young adult. (No adult projects, please).”

Great River Literary is an agency devoted exclusively to representing authors and author/illustrators of books for children and teens.

Strong relationships with editors have resulted in a rapidly growing list of sales of board and picture books, chapter books and novels to such publishing houses as Knopf; Philomel; Viking; Nancy Paulsen/Penguin; Balzer & Bray; Walker; Little, Brown; Henry Holt; Holiday House; Feiwel & Friends; FSG; Running Press; WorthyKids; Abrams; Random House; Wiseman S & S; Chronicle; Candlewick; HarperCollins and many others.

“Great River Literary” was the clear name choice for the new agency established by Mary Cummings in 2021, after thirteen years as an agent for books for children and teens at Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises.

Except in the depths of winter, nearly every evening Mary goes down to the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Paul to see the passing scene of trees and birds, barges and boats, kids and lovers – and always the play of light on the flowing water.

Mary finds great joy in helping her clients polish their stories to stand out for editors and to become books that will make a difference in kids’ lives. Before becoming a literary agent, Mary was Education Director at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis where, among other accomplishments, she curated an annual festival of children’s literature and selected judges for the McKnight Award from leading editors in children’s publishing.