Rachel Beck is a literary agent with Liza Dawson Associates.
Rachel joined Liza Dawson Associates in 2020 after working at a boutique literary agency for 4 years. She has been in the publishing industry since 2009 and worked at Harlequin editing romance novels for nearly 6 years before transitioning her skills to the agent world in order to be an advocate and champion for authors. She lives outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, three young children, and an endlessly entertaining cat.
What Rachel is looking for:
I believe that the right book can change or heal a life, and I want to find those. But I’m also interested in lighter fiction that helps me escape or simply makes me laugh after a tough day. Or nonfiction that teaches me something about an obscure topic, thus opening up a new world. More specifically, I’m looking for:
Upmarket/book club women’s fiction—I’m looking for books in the vein of Emily Giffin, Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Weiner, Liane Moriarty, and Diane Chamberlain, who explore sensitive, controversial or morally gray subjects in a complex, sympathetic way. Material that reminds us how difficult it is to be a modern woman, but also how rich and rewarding. Books that address the struggles of modern womanhood over the decades. Here are just a few ideas of subjects I’d welcome with open arms: dating in an app-based world, marriage tribulations, motherhood and all its joys and complications (including whether to have kids or not), fertility issues, divorce, second acts, job satisfaction, work/life balance, feminism, sexism or sexual assault, racism, religion, capitalism, consumerism, sisterhood (both the biological and best friend kind), messy family dynamics, social media, recovering from the collective trauma of COVID. I’d also love books that explore life in a post-Roe world as a female of child-bearing age; books that convey why the MeToo movement cannot fade out so long as there are still men behaving badly; books that explore gay couples’ parenthood journeys (e.g., weighing adoption vs. surrogacy); and books that explore the pressures, anxieties and mental health tolls of living in a plugged-in-24-7 world (and that maybe include a character exploring an iphone/social media purge?!). I also love odd, eccentric, quirky or perhaps on-the-spectrum characters, as long as they are treated authentically and with compassion (think Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine or A Man Called Ove).
Smart contemporary romance and romcoms—Authors like Emily Henry, Curtis Sittenfeld, Kristan Higgins or Colleen Hoover are all great examples of pros at handling big emotions with empathy and humor. Maybe a beach read at first blush, but with plenty of heart and heft—books that cover the good, the bad and the ugly of life and love, that make you go from laughing to crying in an instant. Smart characters who aren’t pining for love but also aren’t too cynical. Gimme fresh premises, snappy banter and mature characters. Especially interested in non-straight romances and/or non-white characters for this genre.
Historical fiction this side of World War II—Dual timeline welcome. Think of authors such as Kelly Rimmer or Fiona Davis. I’d love to see books tackling the Civil Rights movement and desegregation in the South, or the hippie/free love era, or a book set in the fifties with the woman questioning her homemaker role in the traditional domestic structure of that decade. (I LOVE reading a feminist before her time.)
Nongenre fiction—Would love a sweeping, multigenerational family saga a la Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane, Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow, Halsey Street by Naima Coster or Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Maybe biracial families or non-white communities are centered. Or thoughtful books co-authored by writers with different identities who are each coming to the page with their lived experiences (a great example of this is We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza). Beautiful but heart-wrenching books like Ann Napolitano’s Dear Edward. Fun and hopeful reads like Lessons in Chemistry.
Speculative fiction/magical realism—Rebecca Serle does this so well. I’d love to find something comparable to In Five Years or One Italian Summer.
Gripping thrillers/psychological or domestic suspense—Character-driven, mentally intense reads. I’m especially drawn to characters who are mind-blowingly insane or compelling or extreme or fascinating. Suspense that explores dark subject matter through a feminist lens, a la Jessica Knoll, or a smart and introspective lens like Tana French, or with a cutting and quirky voice like Megan Abbott. Unlikeable characters are most welcome; I’d love to see a good classic antihero. Please avoid clichéd plot-lines, twists for the sake of twists, predictable endings or telling me your story is the next Gone Girl or Girl on the Train.
Contemporary young adult—Favorite YA authors include Becky Albertalli, Amber Smith, Jennifer Niven, John Green, Ann Brashares, Robin Talley and Jandy Nelson. No high/epic fantasy, but “grounded” fantasy or sci-fi okay (i.e., apocalyptic/cyberpunk/dystopian—5 minutes into the future). Not afraid of heavy, issue-driven YA, but less interested in straight mental health or addiction or eating disorder stories, say, as I am in the intersection of these things with abuse/trauma and particularly sexual identity stories. Send me ALL your books about a trans character going through the experience, or a non-cishet person living in Don’t Say Gay land (from Florida to the county in Tennessee that recently banned homosexual behavior), or a character dealing with PTSD from a destructive climate event and perhaps feeling gaslit by climate change deniers (or from witnessing a mass shooting and feeling gaslit by gun rights advocates…), or a Jewish or Muslim or atheist/agnostic teen feeling unwelcome in their Christian nationalist community. Also books that call out class privilege/racism/sexism/homophobia through maybe “subtle” and thus previously overlooked things like dress codes (Does My Body Offend You? by Mayra Cueves and Marie Marquardt is an excellent example of this) or: book bans! PLEASE SEND ME ALLLLLL YOUR BOOKS ABOUT BOOK BANNING—particularly characters at the forefront of a movement to end it. Also would love a fictional exploration of the Parkland Teens’ movement for gun control or Greta Thunberg’s climate change advocacy (much like The Hate U Give highlighted the importance of the police reform movement).
Select nonfiction—I’d love more narrative nonfiction, though I’m always open to prescriptive as well. Gifty, pop-culture books: I’d love to find witty material that pokes fun of the ridiculousness of modern life with the tone of late-night talk shows or standup comedians, format-agnostic (a book of one-liners? Memes? Sure!). Cultural criticism books/essays, social justice issues, advocacy, politics (I’m a huge politics junkie!), feminist material, etc., most welcome. I’d also love books by experts on little-known or forgotten people or time periods that are fascinating in their own right. Narrative nonfiction by BIPOC writers, non-cishet authors, immigrants. Career/personal growth/self-help books with new focus points; extreme underdog, survival, accomplishment or rising-from-poverty type stories; select health and wellness books (particularly rare or underrepresented conditions—for example, I’m fascinated by HSAM, Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory); books about athletes, particularly football players (or anything examining the NFL) and endurance athletes such as marathoners (or ultramarathoners!) and triathletes; select parenting books that bring something new to the conversation (maybe focusing especially on the modern-day pressures on kids/teens, covering everything from social media to extracurricular burnout); books that explore cult life or extreme religion; 9/11 survival stories; anything about Anne Frank
Retellings of classics such as A Tale of Two Cities, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, As I Lay Dying, The Old Man and the Sea, The Tell-Tale Heart
Topics/settings I’d especially like to see across all genres:
Any and all LGBTQIA+—especially the lesser-represented identities, such as trans and asexual and intersex. Gay/queer joy rather than hardships.
Jewish fiction
Immigrant stories
Body/sex positivity
Feminist characters/themes
Found/chosen families
Female friendships
Complex sibling relationships
Urban or southern settings—more specifically, I love New Orleans and would love to see Cajun characters from the bayou region of southern Louisiana. And I’m always a sucker for an NYC or Los Angeles/southern California setting.
Please do NOT pitch me: middle grade, children’s board/picture books, epic/high fantasy, erotic romance, short stories, poetry, plays or screenplays/scripts.
The 2026 Cleveland Writing Workshop 