LARISSA MELO PIENKOWSKI
LITERARY AGENT
Larissa grew up in Massachusetts and attended Simmons College, where she earned her degree in Social Work and Sociology, performed poetry competitively and recreationally, and edited a number of literary magazines. Larissa later went on to receive her MA in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College, where she worked with Beacon Press and Barefoot Books before becoming the associate publisher of Dottir Press.
She joined Jill Grinberg Literary Management as an agent in 2020 and later went on to join Azantian in 2025, where she represents a wide range of adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction. She believes books are a critical tool in the ongoing fight for justice and liberation, and she’s especially excited to bring books into the world that challenge the status quo and make people feel seen. The child of Brazilian and Polish immigrants, Larissa speaks Portuguese and Spanish. She lives in Philadelphia with her wife and their Siberian husky, Olaf.
Fun Facts About Me
1. When I don't have my nose in a book, I can be found playing volleyball, making ceramics, cooking, or doing Pilates.
2. I have a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo.
3. I am in the process of getting certified as a labor and postpartum doula.
stories centered around identity written by authors who don’t share that identity
dystopian novels (though she could be open to postapocalyptic fiction in the vein of All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall)
short stories/novellas, chapter books, or novels-in-verse
Christian or closed-door romance
Tolkien-esque high fantasy
books with a 110K+ word count
stories that include animal cruelty or gratuitous, visceral descriptions of hate crimes, sexual assault, or domestic violence
true crime or books featuring military, police, or professional detectives (amateur sleuths and spies are great, though!)
anything having to do with Nazis or Zionists
WWII or Civil War historical fiction, unless written from a marginalized perspective we haven’t heard from before
fatphobia
nonfiction centered on business, economics, or capital-P politics
Please do not send Me:
Please Send Me:
WISHLIST
In fiction, Larissa gravitates to character-driven books with high personal stakes and what some editors have called “literary plus,” meaning stories that pay particular attention to line-level craft but is driven by genre elements. Across both fiction and nonfiction, she’s especially compelled by an original, well-developed voice and nuanced characters whose propulsive, clearly defined desires and motivations drive the narrative. And while the list below is long, it’s not exhaustive—she’s always excited to fall in love with something new and unexpected.
ADULT FICTION
stories of chosen families that trace the evolution of relationship dynamics over the course of decades (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, The Ensemble by Aja Gabel)
fresh, compelling twists on heists, cons, and scams (Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li)
cozy murder mysteries, capers, and thrillers about spies, assassins, and other clandestine characters (Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto)
BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ protagonists reckoning with entry into often-glamorized, primarily white, cis, heterosexual spaces like museums and the fine arts, academia, the beauty industry, etc. (Your Love Is Not Good by Johanna Hedva, Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou)
non-Western, anti-colonial, grounded fantasy (Babel by R.F. Kuang)
radical pursuits of revenge and justice against colonialism and oppression (You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrique)
high-heat romance and rom-coms with underrepresented characters and premises, whether contemporary or historical (Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola)
MIDDLE GRADE
mystery adventures with a ragtag group of friends at their core (The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart)
slice-of-life stories that handle heavier topics in a moving, age-authentic way (The Line Tender by Kate Allen, Brady Mason’s Perfect Fit by Nicole Melleby)
headstrong characters exploring big, messy feelings and learning about themselves along the way (Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff, Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice by Anna Lapera)
YOUNG ADULT
Her tastes in YA are similar to above but can also skew a little darker. She’s always on the lookout for queer, feminist, and anti-colonial revenge/coming of rage/”good for her/them” books; original twists on dark academia; “unlikeable” protagonists; high-stakes heists, cons, and scams; and LGBTQIA+ protagonists.
ADULT NONFICTION
voicey, engaging narrative nonfiction that draws insightful connections between investigative journalism to humanity at large (How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler)
niche, deep-dive microhistories that can be described as “a love letter to __” or be comped to an Ologies podcast episode (Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui, Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson)
essay collections that chronicle contemporary life through the lens of pop culture, justice, decolonization, and liberation, in the vein of Hanif Abdurraqib and Rebecca Solnit
