Kara Rota is a senior agent with the Thompson Literary Agency. She grew up in Sewell, New Jersey reading and counting down the days until she could move to New York City and work at a magazine, which she did in 2005 after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College. Before joining TLA, she worked as an Executive Editor at Chicago Review Press from 2019-2023, acquiring narrative nonfiction, music, and pop culture titles. Previously from 2014 Kara worked at Macmillan, acquiring and editing cookbooks, mind/body/spirit projects and other nonfiction for multiple Macmillan imprints including Flatiron and St. Martin’s Press. She also served as director of recipe website and Macmillan portfolio company Cookstr.com. At TLA, Kara is excited to represent nonfiction authors including activists, artists, witches, and revolutionaries; cookbooks about more than food, parenting books that see care work as central to social change, illustrated projects that inspire delight, and other nonfiction books that seek to change the world. She lives in Evanston, IL with her husband, their daughter Maeve, and Cat.