We’re getting excited for our upcoming “Submission Shine” online critique intensive event in January. This event allows participants to meet with one faculty member for multiple critiques. They can choose to submit several picture book manuscripts or dummies, successive ten-page sections of a full novel, several batches of portfolio illustrations, or a combination. To learn more about this event and to register, please click here.
Today on the blog we’re please to introduce one of our Submission Shine faculty members, literary agent Karly Dizon from Fuse Literary. She and our illustrator coordinator, Berrie Torgan-Randall, had a chat in our virtual EasternPennPoints Café. Here’s what they had to say.
A Café Chat with Literary Agent Karly Dizon, by Berrie Torgan-Randall
Berrie: Hello, Karly! Welcome to our café chat and happy Filipino American History month! My favorite Filipino food is lumpias. My daughter’s classmate brought lumpias to share with her class, and they were the most popular among the kids and adults!
Karly: Hi, Berrie. Thank you for having me! I love lumpias. I have many memories sitting at the dinner table, rolling lumpias with my mother.
Berrie: What would you like to choose from our virtual café? I heard the avocado toast is pretty good—although the avocados are not as fresh and the sourdough bread is not as good as the sourdough you can get in Northern California where you live.
Karly: California is known for our avocados as well as our sourdough! I’ll take an avocado toast please.
Berrie: It looks like you are a fan of mythology and folklore. My current favorite is The Six Swans collected by the Brothers Grimm. I like how the sister is the heroine of the story, saving her six brothers from her evil stepmother. Are there stories you are drawn to from countries that are underrepresented?
Karly: I am a fan of mythology and folklore in general, though I have a sweet spot for stories that I’ve never heard before.
Berrie: On the Fuse website, it mentions that you are looking for imperfect characters. What is your definition of an imperfect character, and can you give an example of an author who did this well?
Karly: Perfection is so overrated. I want to see a character get messy, make mistakes, and grow—but not necessarily into what’s considered normative “good.” I love to see stories that speak to the authentic truth and experience of human beings, and that means imperfection. One book that comes to mind is Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez.
Berrie: On your manuscript wish list (MSWL) page, it mentions that you are looking for a submission that will make you laugh out loud or cry. What type of humor makes you snarf your milk, and what type of sad story makes you grab a box of tissues?
Karly: There is no one type that’ll evoke the stomach-hurting, tears-forming laughs or chest-wracking, headache-inducing sobs. One thing I can say, though, is it has to be organic to the character, the emotion wrapped up in their character’s core as well as the arc of the story. These elements all work to make those emotional moments that much more impactful.
Berrie: You also mention on your MSWL page that you want to learn about and are interested in STEM-related topics. How can an author-illustrator or author write about a topic without being didactic? Which books do this well?
Karly: It depends on the genre. Nonfiction of course is much more straightforward and can be more forgivingly didactic; however, what keeps that dryness away is remembering to infuse the text with that sense of wonderment and awe. If we can share that emotion, it’ll make the text more accessible to the young reader. For fiction, the balance is much much harder. Young readers have a very sensitive BS meter, and if you’re trying to teach them a lesson, they will sniff that out immediately. The emphasis needs to be less on the “lesson learned” but more so on the journey of learning that lesson, because that’s what’s most relatable: the emotion, the experience.
Berrie: When an author-illustrator or illustrator sends you a submission, what art style catches your eye? Are there hashtags that you follow on Instagram or Twitter to find illustrators?
Karly: I’ve loved art ever since I found my dad’s stack of graphite art as a kid. I’m a fan of all art styles and am in absolute awe at people’s talent. I don’t skew in any particular way. I appreciate hyperrealism and the details as well as the softer, more fluid art styles. I actually do not have any hashtags I specifically follow because I would hate to limit the kind of art I’m exposed to.
Berrie: I see that you are a fan of video games. What is your favorite video game? Mine is Mario Kart—I enjoy taking my time and admiring the graphics and evidently coming in last against my super-competitive family.
Karly: Video game nerd BFF?! YES!!! I enjoy good ol’ Mario Kart (especially at the arcade), but I’m primarily a FPS player, though I have been playing League of Legends a lot lately. We should Mario Kart sometime, mwahaha.
Berrie: Thank you for meeting with me at our virtual café, and I look forward to learning more about you and your agency during the Eastern PA SCBWI Submission Shine event.
Karly: Thank you for having me! Can I take an avocado slice to go?
Karly Dizon is an associate agent at Fuse Literary, building KidLit universes with stories that matter. She first joined the agency in 2016 as a reader for Tricia Skinner and then was promoted to literary assistant soon after. In 2019, she was promoted to associate agent. Karly has built a career with a strong background as a freelance editor as well as extensive experience with graphic design and marketing. She is looking to develop long-term career authors and nurture their entire writing journey as a strong editorial agent with marketing, social media, and design support. Karly is also the KidLit track coordinator for the San Francisco Writers Conference.
Submission Shine Critique Intensive
Whether you have multiple submission-ready picture book manuscripts, write across age categories, have a variety of illustration pieces and illustrated works, or a combination of all of the above, Submission Shine is an opportunity to talk with one agent about four submission-ready works and your writing/illustrating career as a whole.
Registration includes
- Four 20-minute Zoom critiques with one faculty member of your choice
- One additional 20-minute Zoom meeting with your same faculty member to be used as either a career consultation or an opportunity to pitch additional work
- Five peer cohort critique group meetings
- Access to the webinar “Take Charge of Your Writerly Adventure” with Christine Carron
For more information and to register, go to https://epa.scbwi.org/events/submission-shine-online-critique-intensive/
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