About Laura
Laura Rennert has been with the agency since 1998. She specializes in all categories of children's books, from picture books to YA. She also represents literary-commercial fiction, thrillers, and psychological suspense/horror on the adult side.
Laura gravitates toward the gorgeously written, the weirdly idiosyncratic, and the refreshingly unexpected. The common threads in the diverse range of projects Laura represents are conflicted, dynamic characters; a fresh, strong voice; an unusual point of view; and vivid world-building. She loves works that draw on literary traditions and reimagine them as something completely, captivatingly new. She has a special fondness for books that play with commercial tropes, but give them surprising emotional depth.
She'd love to find fiction in all categories with an intriguing, thoughtful feminist sensibility. She’s seeking diverse fantasies and thrillers that use underrepresented traditions, histories, or cultures as the basis for their world-building. She’s drawn to narrative risk-takers. She'd particularly like to find middle grade, YA, or adult fiction that tells an emotionally compelling story in an unusual way – like Mitali Perkins' YOU BRING THE DISTANT NEAR, which uses linked stories to explore sisterhood, first loves, and the inheritance of cultures across three generations of girls; or Maggie Stiefvater's THE SCORPIO RACES, which takes the Celtic legend of the water horse and turns it into something wildly original and wonderfully unexpected. In thrillers and psychological suspense/horror, she gravitates towards unreliable narrators and morally ambiguous characters. She looks for street cred and authenticity – whether of trade-craft, investigative technique, historical/geographical setting, culture, or psychology. She’s fascinated with hidden worlds and secret knowledge.
Some of Laura's YA deals include Maggie Stiefvater's #1 NYT and USA Today bestselling series The Raven Cycle and Printz Honor Finalist THE SCORPIO RACES (both Scholastic); Jay Asher's #1 NYT and #1 USA Today bestselling THIRTEEN REASONS WHY (Razorbill/PRH) on which the Netflix 13 Reasons Why series is based; #1 NYT and USA Today Bestseller Ellen Hopkins's PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE (Margaret K. McElderry/S&S); and award-winning author Mitali Perkins's YOU BRING THE DISTANT NEAR (FSG/Macmillan), long listed for the National Book Award and a Walter Dean Myers Honor for Outstanding Children’s Literature. Middle grade titles include Shannon Messenger's long running, NYT and USA Today bestselling Keeper of the Lost Cities series (Aladdin/S&S).
Picture books include Lisa Mantchev’s STRICTLY NO ELEPHANTS (Paula Wiseman/S&S), a 2016 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Honorable Title; award-winning author Tammi Sauer's WORDY BIRDY (Doubleday/PRH); and NYT bestselling author Nina Laden's YELLOW KAYAK (Paula Wiseman/S&S) and her Peek-A-Who series (Chronicle).
Some adult titles include NYT and Kindle bestselling and award-winning author Catherine Ryan Hyde's JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT (Lake Union/Amazon); #1 NYT bestselling author Lauren Kate’s forthcoming THE ORPHAN'S SONG (Putnam/PRH); WSJ bestselling author Joe Hart’s OBSCURA (Thomas & Mercer/Amazon); and NYT bestselling and award-winning thriller writer Barry Eisler's THE KILLER COLLECTIVE (Thomas & Mercer/Amazon).
Laura's work as an agent is enhanced by her familiarity of what it’s like on the author's side of the table. She’s married to an author, she’s raising a young author, and Laura herself is the author of a picture book, BUYING, TRAINING, AND CARING FOR YOUR DINOSAUR (Knopf/PRH), illustrated by Marc Brown, creator of Arthur; and of an illustrated chapter book, ROYAL PRINCESS ACADEMY: DRAGON DREAMS, illustrated by Melanie Florian (Dial/PRH).
Laura has a Ph.D. in English Literature and was a faculty member in the English departments of the University of Virginia, Osaka University of Foreign Studies, and Santa Clara University.
