Originally hailing from St. Louis, Missouri, Maria graduated from Kenyon College before cutting her teeth in publishing as an intern at Writers House. She went on to work as an editorial assistant at W.W. Norton & Co. and later as an editor at Scholastic. Over the course of her publishing tenure she has worked on behalf of Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award winners, Guggenheim fellows, PEN/Hemingway Award winners, and New York Times best sellers. Her work experience has given her insight into many realms of reading, from non-fiction and poetry to literary and commercial fiction, to books for children and young adults.

She’s currently looking for non-fiction that explores big events from new angles, whip-smart cultural criticism, as well as original and urgent journalism and science writing. She’s also on the lookout for books to engage kids in non-fiction topics, from ancient history to contemporary issues. She is not currently considering poetry, picture books, romance, science fiction, or fantasy at this time.

Some books she’s recently enjoyed have been THE UNWINDING by George Packer, WAYWARD LIVES, BEAUTIFUL EXPERIMENTS by Saidiya Hartman, IN THE DREAM HOUSE by Carmen Maria Machado, BOTTLE OF LIES by Katherine Eban, RIVER by Elisha Cooper, and PET by Akwaeke Emezi.

For graphic novel submissions, please submit a query letter and synopsis, along with sample images (lo-res) and links to your portfolio.

For fiction and nonfiction. please submit via Mary’s Query Manager. She generally responds to queries within 6 weeks of receipt.