Salky Literary Management (SLM) is a boutique, client-focused literary management agency. We represent authors whose stories inspire us.
In partnership with Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency (CSLA), we represent prize and award winning authors, illustrators, and journalists and many New York Times bestsellers, with a focus on diverse voices and previously untold stories.
If you are a SLM or CSLA client, you are part of a group of authors that are changing the world through their stories. We are proud to stand in service of that mission.
WORK
WITH US
Interested in learning more about careers at SLM?
JESS
Jesseca Salky (she/hers) is an agent, founder, and attorney, with almost two decades of experience in the book publishing and adjacent industries. She represents a curated list of distinguished novelists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling novelist Anne Tyler, and works with some of the leading literary agencies and agents in New York as contracts counsel and general business adviser. She has a 360-degree view of the industry as agent and attorney and is on the cutting edge of developments in formats and mediums, often formulating new standards on behalf of writers and agents in the industry.
Jesseca keeps a curated client list of authors, thinkers, and industry disruptors. She is selectively looking for contemporary young adult romance (in the vein of Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy), as well as literary fiction submissions that are family stories (she loves a good mother/daughter tale or a story of multiple generations of one family), or have a strong sense of place (where the setting feels like its own character), a magical or mystical element, or a daring or unique voice. She also represents narrative nonfiction in the wellness, social activism and “living a purposeful life” spaces.
ERYN
Eryn Kalavsky (she/hers) is a veteran of the book publishing industry, having built the foundation of her career in publicity, marketing and international sales at HarperCollins Publishers where she led many New York Times and international bestselling campaigns. Prior to joining SLM, she worked as a publishing consultant strategically helping authors and entrepreneurs develop their book ideas while simultaneously growing their brands and engaging their micro-communities. Eryn has an eye for emerging voices and brings a marketing mindset to all her projects.
Originally a Tar Heel from North Carolina, she’s lived in Italy, Martha’s Vineyard, Boston, New York City and now has built a life in Los Angeles with her family. An innately curious person, she is seeking nonfiction projects that dig so deeply into a unique subject that they reveal universal truths about ourselves and society, practical books that inspire a more fulfilling lifestyle and help us grow in our relationships and build community, and those that excite our sense of taste, style, adventure, and wonder. Her specific areas of focus are: narrative nonfiction, cooking, lifestyle, psychology, sports (currently seeking projects in skiing and baseball), nature, spirituality, wellness, humor and pop culture. She is always partial to projects with a southern sensibility or a west coast vibe.
KATE
Kate Garrick (she/hers) joined SLM in 2021, after two decades as an agent at The Karpfinger Agency and DeFiore and Company, where she also served as contracts manager. Kate is drawn to strong narrative voices, and she has successfully represented a wide range of award-winning and bestselling fiction and non-fiction projects in her career.
Originally from Orange Park, Florida, Kate earned her B.A. in English literature at Florida State University and her M.A., also in English literature, from New York University. She lived in New York City for more than twenty years, but is now based in Portland, Oregon. Kate looks for projects that demonstrate a clear confidence of intention and a willingness to engage with our changing world with humility and curiosity. She is particularly interested in literary and upmarket fiction, memoir, and narrative non-fiction that endeavors to contribute to the conversations that will move our society forward.
ERIKA
Erika Stevens (she/hers) has acquired, edited, and developed the work of a wide range of authors over the course of two decades in publishing. She recently wrapped up twelve years with indie Coffee House Press, finishing her time there as editorial director. She began her career at academic presses, including Duke, UNC, and UGA Presses. Authors whose work she has shepherded include Eloisa Amezcua, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Kyle Dargan, Latasha N. Nevada Diggs, Saeed Jones, Eugene Lim, Dawn Lundy Martin, Bao Phi, Justin Phillip Reed, Natasha Trethewey, Anne Waldman, Karen Tei Yamashita, and many others. Her authors have been awarded or named finalists for the National Book Award, the Hurston Wright Award, the Kingsley and Kate Tufts Award, the PEN/Osterweil Award, the Whiting Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kate Tufts Award, the NBCC Award, the Lambda Awards, and others.
As an agent and editor she specializes in helping authors develop their work, whether in their home genres or stretching into others. She has an affinity for work that argues, experiments with language, and/or pushes genre boundaries, and she is looking for projects that excite, invigorate, and surprise in the genres of poetry, literary nonfiction/essay, literary and experimental fiction, hybrid work, translation, criticism, music writing (à la Ellen Willis), and food writing/cookbooks (à la Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor and MFK Fisher). In the realm of children’s literature, she’s looking for picture books and books for early readers that speak to children with gender-expansive identities and families.
RACHEL
Rachel Altemose (she/hers) is a junior agent and has been with Salky Literary Management since its inception in 2019. Prior to SLM, she interned at Eden Street Literary Agency and attended the Columbia Publishing Course. She has a burgeoning list of picture book, MG, YA, narrative/serious nonfiction, and literary fiction authors and also assists Jesseca, Eryn, Kate, and Charlotte with SLM and CSLA clients.
Rachel is a lifelong lover of storytelling and graduated from Vassar College with degrees in English and drama. She is interested in a diverse array of genres (children’s through adult) and is particularly keen on narratives with unique voices, diverse perspectives, immersive settings, complicated familial relationships, young/twenty-something protagonists, magical realism/surrealism, or experimental style.
CHARLOTTE
Charlotte Sheedy (she/hers) is a long-time literary agent to a long list of award-winning and bestselling authors and illustrators. She began her career as an editorial assistant at Dial Press, eventually leaving to pursue an undergraduate degree at Columbia. While in school, she continued her work with Dial as a book scout and co-wrote her first book. She returned to Dial full time as a cookbook editor for a short period before her final pivot into literary agenting when, at the suggestion of one of her colleagues, she began her own boutique agency that she headed for many years before merging with a larger agency.
She formed the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency ten years ago, which has now forged a partnership with Salky Literary Management in order to give better coverage and support to authors in a rapidly changing media rights landscape.
Over the years, the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency has represented a diverse list of fiction, nonfiction, and children's book authors and illustrators. Their clients are vanguards of their fields, bringing fresh, innovative ideas and perspectives to literature and the way we view the world.