Image of Maeve MacLysaght, fair skinned, blue hair, wearing geometric glasses and a black short-sleeve button-up shirt

Hi There!

I’m Maeve (formerly Em Lysaght) and I’m an agent at Copps Literary Services. I cut my teeth in publishing at houses like Scholastic and Insight Editions representing foreign and subsidiary rights before transitioning to agenting to work more closely with authors. I agented at Ladderbird Literary before joining CLS as agent and rights manager in 2022.

I read widely across genre and age range and I’m particularly looking for queer and POC authors reworking the tropes that historically oppressed them in commercial fiction. Let’s contribute to the joy in the world.

2023 Events

Monthly: You can find me every month (changing dates) offering query and MS feedback at the Manuscript Academy

March 27-June 1: Critique-a-Palooza reviews, Virtual

May 3: Futurescapes Adult SFF Workshop, Virtual

August 2-5: Futurescapes Long Manuscript Workshop, Virtual

February 16-19, 2023: San Francisco Writers Conference San Francisco, CA

February 19, 2-5pm PST: Pitches with Pictures: Graphic Novel Proposal Workshop San Francisco, CA

March 9-11, 2023: Futurescapes, Virtual

April 8, 11:15am EST: Character-Driven World Building Workshop, Virtual


UPCOMING BOOKS

Deal announcement for HANS VOGEL IS DEAD by Sierra Barnes
Deal announcement for Sami Ford's DEAD GIRLS WALKING
Low-contrast red and black pattern surrounds a text box describing a deal on Publisher's Marketplace that reads: Circe Moskowitz ed.'s NO HARM DONE, pitched as a cross between SLASHER GIRLS & MONSTER BOYS and Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone, a collection of Black horror stories that explores and dives deep into the genre from the creative minds of both debut and established Black writers, including Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sami Ellis, Brent Lambert, Ashia Monet, Linda Raquel Nieves Perez, Joel Rochester, Liselle Sambury, and Joelle Wellington, to Alicia Sparrow at Chicago Review Press, for publication in fall 2023, by Natascha Morris at The Tobias Literary Agency (world).
A skeleton holding a violin looks at a text box describing a deal on Publisher's Marketplace that reads: Author-illustrator Emily Ettlinger's SKELEANOR THE DECOMPOSER, about an inventive skeleton who wants to play her instruments in the town band, but she's got more rattle than rhythm, to Rachel Sonis at Penguin Workshop, in a nice deal, for publication in summer 2023, by Em Lysaght at Ladderbird Literary Agency (world English).
Rights: emlysaght@ladderbird.com