#DVpit critique giveaway
June 14-18, 2022.
We are giving away critiques from outstanding publishing professionals to marginalized creators who hope to participate in the next #DVpit event. As industry insiders, we understand that it’s not always about that 280-character pitch; your query letter and pages also have to shine! It is our hope that with a critique, you’ll be able to deliver even stronger submission materials to agents and editors who fave your tweets. More than that, we hope that the extra insight will be helpful to creators as they continue to develop and improve their work beyond #DVpit.
All donors have agreed to return their critiques 2 weeks from receipt. To enter the giveaways, entrants must have a Twitter account, with which they will retweet (not quote-tweet) and separately reply to the relevant “giveaway” tweets (informing us of their category and genre for which they’d like a critique) per the below schedule. All giveaways will close on Saturday (June 18) at 6PM ET immediately following. Entries must be for completed, unpublished work. Winners will be notified via Twitter DM over the following two weeks, with instructions on how to claim their critique. Critiques will vary by donor: some offer query critiques, first five pages critiques, or submission package critiques (i.e. query letter plus the first five pages), or feedback on art samples. Winners are not able to choose a specific donor.
We will run the giveaways on the @DVpit_ Twitter account per the following schedule.
Tuesday, June 14 at Noon ET: Children’s, i.e. Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade
Tuesday, June 14 at 4PM ET: Young Adult
Wednesday, June 15 at Noon ET: Adult Fiction & Nonfiction
Thursday, June 16 at Noon ET: Artists & Illustrators
Here are all the amazing donors from this giveaway listed below!
Deborah Bailey, an award-winning YA writer represented by Sera Rivers of Martin Literary Management, is currently serving as a 2022 WriteTeam Mentor in Residence and 2022 WriteMentor YA mentor.
Erica Bauman has been an agent with Aevitas Creative Management since 2015.
Amy Elizabeth Bishop joined DG&B in 2015 and is cultivating a wide-ranging list in upmarket and book club fiction, expert-driven narrative nonfiction, and select YA, with a special interest in BIPOC voices. Her list includes titles such as The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim (a Reese’s Book Club selection and NYT bestseller), and The Red Palace by bestselling author June Hur. She graduated from SUNY Geneseo with a degree in Creative Writing.
Heather Carr is a literary agent at The Friedrich Agency where she represents fiction and nonfiction for adults.
Chelsea Eberly is the director of the Greenhouse Literary Agency where she represents middle grade, young adult, graphic novelists, picture book illustrators, and adult upmarket women’s fiction.
Clare Edge is an author and witch currently making magic in the Rocky Mountains.
Hillary Fazzari is the Agency Assistant for the Bradford Literary Agency; previously she spent time with Writers House and other agencies as an intern.
Feather Flores (she/her) is drawn to narratives that depict the beauty and diversity of the human experience: the humor, the emotion, the curiosity, the magic. She works on picture books, MG and YA novels, and graphic novels for all ages.
Genevieve Gagne-Hawes started at Writers House in 2003, the year she pulled TWILIGHT from the slush pile. She’s currently the in-house editor, working with WH agents to strengthen projects in all genres.
Diana Gill spent more than twenty years as an executive editor in Big4 publishing, editing commercial fiction at Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and HarperCollins Publishers, including running a successful genre imprint for HarperCollins for twelve years.
MK Hardy is the pen name for two geeky women living and writing sapphic genre fiction together in Scotland.
Hend Hegazi is a freelance editor and writing coach supporting writers to achieve their highest potential.
Marissa Higgins is a lesbian writer working on a novel.
Janine Kamouh is an agent in the WME Books department where she has the esteemed pleasure of representing amazing debut, bestselling, and award winning authors and artists across the children’s, graphic novel, and crossover spaces.
Brian D. Kennedy is a DVpit alum and the author of A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY (Balzer + Bray).
Sarah Khalil is a literary agent at the Boston-based literary agency Kneerims & Williams.
Vicki Lame is an Executive Editor at St. Martin’s Publishing Group and Wednesday Books for what she likes to call books about big feelings.
Sher Lee is a YA author from Singapore, and her debut Young Adult rom-com, FAKE DATES AND MOONCAKES, will be published by Penguin Random House in Summer 2023.
After graduating Rutgers University with a BA in Journalism and Media Studies, Peter Lopez decided what he really wanted to write about was magic. Now, he writes books about Latine kids going on epic adventures. Peter also creates marketing materials for authors as the owner and graphic designer of LZ Creative. He is represented by Beth Phelan at Gallt & Zacker.
JENNIFER MARCH SOLOWAY, an associate agent with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, represents authors and illustrators of picture book, middle grade, young adult, and some adult projects, especially psychological suspense and literary horror.
Namita Moolani Mehra is a published Children’s book writer and small business owner. She is based in Singapore and is represented by Naomi Davis at BookEnds Literary.
Patricia Nelson has been a literary agent with Marsal Lyon Literary Agency since 2014. She represents middle grade, young adult, and select adult fiction.
Carolina Ortiz is an Editor at Harper Children’s, primarily working on middle grade, young adult, and graphic novels.
Sandra Proudman is a Mexican American writer of stories with unabashed Latinx protagonists. She grew up in California where she studied journalism and creative writing. She was a Pitch Wars and DiverseVoices, Inc. mentor, was a Marketing and Publicity Intern at Latinx in Publishing, and is part of the #LatinxPitch team, a yearly Twitter pitch event geared toward connecting emerging Latinx voices with agents and editors. In her free time, she enjoys helping marginalized creators with their submission materials and mentoring writers of color.
Shelly Romero is the Lead Editor at Cake Creative, a book packager, where she develops and edits projects from middle-grade to adult.
Ann Rose, Prospect Agency agent, making magic with her clients one book at a time.
Claudia Schmidhuber is a journalist and YA author. She is represented by Erin Casey Westin at Gallt & Zacker.
Eric Smith is a literary agent and Young Adult author. An agent with P.S. Literary he’s worked on New York Times bestselling and award-winning books. As an author, his recent books include Don’t Read the Comments, You Can Go Your Own Way, and Jagged Little Pill: The Novel. He lives in Philadelphia.
Samantha Wekstein is a Literary Agent at Thompson Literary Agency where she represents a wide range of commercial fiction including Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Romance, Women’s Fiction, Historical Fiction, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy as well as very select narrative and pop-culture non-fiction.
Christen Young is a queer, fat, neurodiverse Young Adult author represented by Becca Langton.