Presenters

Reiko Davis

Agent

In-Person Conference

Davis is agent at DeFiore and Company. A graduate of Brown University and the Columbia Publishing Course, she grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and now lives in New York. Her clients include Devi S. Laskar (winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Fiction), Genevieve Plunkett (O. Henry Prize winner), Shannon Sanders (PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize winner), Lucy Jane Bledsoe (Stonewall Award winner and Lambda Literary Award finalist), Sean O’Brien (former Director of Speechwriting to Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden and Special Assistant to President Barack Obama), Mallory Weggemann (Paralympic swimmer for Team USA), Brittany Wagner (Netflix Last Chance U star), bestselling writing coach Alan Gelb, YA novelist Lindsey Klingele, middle grade authors Andrea Debbink and Brittany Geragotelis, author-illustrator Erin Williams, and journalists Nancy A. Nichols and Katie Simon.

Reiko’s interests are varied, but on the adult side she’s primarily seeking literary and book club fiction. She loves historical, contemporary, or multigenerational novels both in the U.S. and internationally; family sagas; voice-driven coming-of-age stories; the occasional rom-com; and fierce, compassionately written works that grapple with identity and belonging and portray diverse lived experiences. She’d love to connect with promising writers of short fiction who are at work on a debut story collection and/or novel.

She also represents select narrative non-fiction projects that explore social justice, issues of race and gender, and the history and experiences of women and people of color. She loves compelling journalistic narratives that read like fiction or that use an intimate personal story as a lens for a larger issue or analysis.

On the children’s side, Reiko is actively looking for middle grade projects that aren’t afraid to tackle big questions or important emotional truths, and do so through remarkable storytelling, humor, and heart. Right now she’s especially on the lookout for middle grade non-fiction in the areas of mental health, science, political activism, environmentalism, and narrative history. She has a real soft spot for middle grade novels that empower kids to make a difference in their communities.

Presentations