Alice Brinkman is a literary agent with and the founder of the Alice Brinkman Literary Agency. She says: “Three things that may help writers, agents, and publishers know me: I love writing. I love research, I love reading. This is who I am and why I started my literary agency. First, it is the perfect job for me. I taught elementary school and high school English for almost 23 years in the public sector. During my time teaching at the high school level, my favorite curriculum was teaching literature, poetry, and creative writing. I was also the advisor for the newspaper for ten years. I have been very fortunate to have been able to pursue and nurture my passion for writing, reading and teaching English but I knew the transition to becoming a literary agent would be a natural one for me. So, in 2019 right before the pandemic hit, I created my agency. I have not looked back. I am one agent, with one editor in New York who is a recent graduate from Columbia School of Journalism. She works remote for three magazines copy writing and editing. We read everything. My agency gets submissions every week. I have signed several clients and I am working every day to find a perfect fit for them.

While it is true, I don’t have 25 years of experience, nor do I have a list of writers that I have helped obtain six figure advances. I am not embarrassed by that fact because like my writers who submit to me they are only hoping to get signed by an agent. I have to do the rest of the work to convince a publisher to read their material, no easy task by any stretch of the imagination. Rome was not built in a day right? I am hopeful and keep my nose to the grindstone. It will happen, just like it did for all those other agencies out there who started out twenty-five years ago. Like me, they may have started out from their dining room table alone with one editor too. I work from my computer wherever I am. This is all part of the dream, and I am beyond grateful to be doing it. I have been asked to include some information about myself and so I apologize for the length of this page.

Another fact is thatI am a novice in this endeavor, however, I am also a highly qualified former educator. I hold a Bachelors in English Literature from the University of California, San Diego, a Masters of Arts in Education Studies from the University of California, San Diego, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from National University. I worked full time while at National University to pay my bills like most in class/online students. It took me three and a half years to obtain that degree. I know that there are plenty of people who question the rigor or veracity of this learning institution but it was one of the proudest moments of my life when I obtained that degree. Namely because I finished a novel I had been wanting to write even before I entered elementary school, and I finally did it. I have been asked why I have never pitched it to anyone, the truth is I have been editing and rewriting it for the last nine years. No regrets, I was too busy teaching at the time, advising students, and traveling with students across Europe. I am writing a book right now in my spare time. Ha! I don’t have spare time, I am in no hurry, it is a pleasure when I can fit it in. Let’s see what else, I am married, have one son. I travel to Europe twice a year to my little home in Italy where I can read without many interruptions.

My career now, post teaching, is committed to finding publishing contracts for my clients. My website focuses on the business side of my agency. That is why I did not include my bio on my website and because I am a very private person. I enjoy spending time with my books and reading more than having a full social calendar. I am a writer, currently working writing chapters when I am not reading manuscripts. I am a dreamer, and I believe wholeheartedly in what the writers who send me their writing are doing, trying to make their dreams come true. I am trying to help them achieve that dream.

My promise is that I will get their work out into the publishing universe, the rest hinges on their writing. I work very hard like the majority of agents and editors in this business, maybe more because my clients want to know I can make this happen for them. Unfortunately, as I said before, I will do all I can but the writing will be what makes the publishers want to sign them. Yes, it would be nice to be a huge success as a literary agent but everything I have ever wanted in my life has been because of determination, never giving up, and always staying hopeful and positive. That is it. I hope this long, boring bio satisfies the curiosity of anyone who wants to know who Alice Brinkman is. Most will discover that it is not that different or special from anyone else but I am definitely someone you can count on to work hard sending your writing into the hands of those that really can make dreams come true. Now go on writers, back to work. Write on!!! Alice Brinkman.”