Michelle Brower

Founding Partner, Literary Agent

Michelle Brower has spent over fifteen years as an agent, first at Wendy Sherman Associates and most recently as a partner at Aevitas Creative Management. She co-founded Trellis Literary Management in 2021 in order to better serve and support her authors and create an agency with a lasting positive impact in the world of publishing.

Her list spans the spectrum of literary and commercial fiction, from thought-provoking story collections to page-turning thrillers. She is primarily interested in work that focuses on storytelling and emotional connection, rather than formal experimentation, and believes that the best reading experience engages both the heart and the head. She is looking for book club novels (a commercial idea with a literary execution), literary fiction, literary suspense, genre fiction for a non-genre audience, and upmarket women’s fiction. In non-fiction, she is looking for a personal story that illuminates a greater subject. Michelle also very selectively represents literary Young Adult fiction. In all of these areas, she is looking to support underrepresented voices.

Michelle is honored to work with books that have received a variety of accolades, including NY Times Bestsellers, National Book Award finalists, and Read with Jenna, Target, and Barnes and Noble book club selections. Her authors have received recognition from the Whiting Awards, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, MacDowell, the Steinbeck Fellow Program, the Sewanee Writers Conference as well as from many other organizations.

Michelle received her Masters degree in British and American Literature from New York University. Originally from New Jersey, she now lives in Seattle with her family.

Michelle’s favorite non-client authors (if your work is similar, feel free to get in touch!): Maggie Shipstead, Lily King, Louise Erdrich, Deesha Philyaw, Kiley Reid, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Kazuo Ishiguro, Yaa Gyasi, Celeste Ng, Jennifer Egan, Shirley Jackson, Ann Patchett, Sarah Waters.