I’m Jenni Ferrari-Adler, a literary agent at Verve Talent & Literary Agency.
I represent a range of work including recent New York Times Bestsellers, and Book Club Picks by Reese Witherspoon, The Today Show’s Read With Jenna, Barnes & Noble, and Belletrist.
I’m looking for exciting new clients.
Select Clients
Fiction list includes New York Times Bestsellers, and recent Book Club Picks by Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Bush Hager/The Today Show, Barnes & Noble, and Belletrist.
- Maureen Abood
- Sara Johnson Allen
- Maria Adelmann
- Steve Almond
- Jennifer Baker
- Homa Dashtaki
- Mo Daviau
- Aya De León
- Rebecca Dinerstein Knight
- Ariel Djanikian
- Emily Elsen & Melissa Elsen
- Miciah Bay Gault
- Lauren Gershell
- Alison Hart
- Pamela Moore Estate
- Sohui Kim
- Amy Kurzweil
- Amelia Levin
- Sarah Huck
- Sara Lippmann
- Ivy Manning
- Melia Marden
- Tom Mylan
- Neel Patel
- Eileen Pollack
- Ana Reyes
- Gerardo Sámano Córdova
- Brian Selfon
- Lauren Shockey
- Freda Love Smith
- Maria Speck
- Cameron Stauch
- Grace Talusan
- Jess Thomson
- Susie Yang
About Jenni
I am an agent at Verve Talent & Literary Agency. I have twenty years of experience in book publishing and have been an agent since 2006.
After graduating from Oberlin with a major in creative writing I worked as a bookseller for Housing Works Bookstore and a reader at The Paris Review before taking a job as an assistant to Nat Sobel at Sobel Weber Associates. After four years there I moved to Ann Arbor Michigan to pursue an MFA in Fiction. I spent two years writing millions of pages of a novel that are in the proverbial drawer. I won the Chamberlin Award for Creative Writing. As a direct result of getting obsessed with cooking for only myself I created and edited the anthology ALONE IN THE KITCHEN WITH AN EGGPLANT: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone which was published by Riverhead. I have published my own short stories and essays in places including Glimmer Train, Bellevue Literary Review, New York Magazine, and Tin House. I taught Fiction at the University of Michigan and at The Gotham Writers’ Workshop.
I worked for many years at Union Literary building the agency’s cookbook list from scratch and selling a lot of inventive fabulous fiction including the story “Cat Person” to the New Yorker.
I live in Brooklyn where I volunteer for Casa and enjoy doing many of these things simultaneously: cooking, walking the dog, wrangling the children, reading books, and watching television.
Representation
At Verve, I represent a range of work including recent New York Times Bestsellers, and Book Club Picks by Reese Witherspoon, The Today Show’s Read With Jenna, Barnes & Noble, and Belletrist.
In addition to literary and commercial novels, I represent award-winning young adult and middle grade novels, short story collections, graphic memoirs, narrative non-fiction, and cookbooks. I work closely with clients on each step of the publishing process, and on their career as a whole, including handling film and television, UK and Translation, and magazine sales.
Please email a query letter describing your book and include the first twenty pages. If interested, I will reach out and ask for the full manuscript.
Engagements
I am available for select panels, speaking engagements, workshops, and one-on-one meetings with students.
I have spoken at places including: The Loft in Minneapolis, The New School MFA, NYU MFA, Brooklyn MFA, Vermont MFA, Michigan MFA; SCBWI in Princeton; Imagination Writers Conference at Cleveland State University, Tin House in Portland, Jewish Writers Conference, Grub Street in Boston, Story Studio in Chicago, Light House Writers Workshop in Denver, Aspen Writers Foundation, Connecticut College, Chatham College, Slice Literary, Sarah Lawrence, One Story, San Miguel Writers Conference, and IACP.
Consultations
I offer some phone consultations for an hourly fee. Popular topics include:
- Agents (how to find one, how to leave one, how to choose which ones to query, etc.)
- Query plus five pages
- Query Letter
- In-Depth Review
- Synopsis Review
- Artist or Personal Statement Review
- MFA Consultations
- MFA Application Prep