How NOT to Get an Agent with Emmy Nordstrom Higdon

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Jonathan welcomes back literary agent Emmy Nordstrom Higdon to discuss the role of an agent in the publishing process, and what NOT to do when you’re trying to get an agent for yourself.

Higdon (they/them) holds a PhD in justice-oriented social work with a focus on critical animal studies from McMaster University, with peer-reviewed publications in public health and psychology. In 2019, they made a lateral career move into publishing after four years as a bookseller at a local independent bookstore.

They are a literary agent at Westwood Creative Artists, a faculty member for the Manuscript Academy, and an advisor for the Festival of Literary Diversity and Sheridan College Creative Writing and Publishing programs. In their agenting work, they use a hands-on, conscious editing approach.

Higdon is a queer, trans, and non-binary colonizer originally from Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland), the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq, now based on the Haldimand Tract, which is the territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Attawandaran peoples. Higdon is autistic, has psychiatric disabilities, and a hormone-related chronic illness.

Higdon lives with their partner, a Deaf Dalmatian named Pavot, two formerly feral Maine coon cats, Whisper and Willow, and their collection of plants, informally nicknamed The Leafy Bois. They keep busy with vegan cooking, needlework, wholesome games, snail mail, their sticker collection, TTRPGs, and… obviously, reading.

For more on Higdon visit their website here.

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