WriteHive Mentorship Program

#HiveMentor

E.M. Anderson

Mentor Expertise: Small/Independent Press, Traditional Publishing
She/They

Mentor Bio

E.M. Anderson (she/they) is a queer, neurodivergent author with twenty years’ experience writing novels, short stories, and poetry. Their work has been published in Wyldblood Press’s From the Depths: A Fantasy Anthology, SJ Whitby’s Awakenings: A Cute Mutants Anthology, Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction (no. 4), and Windmill: The Hofstra Journal (iss. 6), with more forthcoming from GutSlut Press. Her debut novel, The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher, released with Hansen House Books in 2023; she is now repped by ALA agent Keir Alekseii. When E isn’t writing, they can be found obsessing over birds, pole fitness, or Uncle Iroh. It is their doom to one day vanish in the forest despite the warnings of the local of villagers, all because she wanted to befriend the trees, or maybe find a cool rock. Until that fateful day, you can find them on Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky at elizmanderson.

Mentorship Expectations

I’m looking for a mentee who is receptive to feedback but has a strong enough sense of their story to disregard suggestions that won’t work and to generate their own story solutions. I’m open to mentees who aren’t sure what path they’d like to pursue and would like to discuss their goals and concerns about different types of publishing. I would be the best fit for mentees who like periodic check-ins and text-based modes of communication. I may not be the best fit for mentees looking for deeply hands-on line edits: I’m happy to make suggestions if that’s what a mentee is looking for after a developmental round, but I’m very voice-conscious and unwilling to rewrite entire lines. I want the final manuscript to be the best and most of what you set out to make it, not something that I would have personally written or that best fits my tastes as a reader!

Manuscript Wishlist

My favorite genres are:

  • Contemporary fantasy
  • Cozy fantasy
  • Contemporary romance
  • I’m open to YA and MG but may be a better fit for adult.

In all genres and age groups, I’m most interested in:

  • Stories by and centering on queer and/or neurodivergent people
  • I generally prefer standalones to series
  • Also a fan of novellas (although I may have less publishing advice for novellas).

Recent favorites include:

  • The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (Sangu Mandanna)
  • Silver in the Wood (Emily Tesh)
  • The Brown Sisters trilogy (Talia Hibbert)
  • Cemetery Boys (Aiden Thomas)
  • Legends & Lattes (Travis Baldree)

I am not the right fit for:

  • Horror
  • Thriller
  • Erotica
  • Anything described as “dark,” although I do enjoy things described as “Gothic.” (Recently, I loved Lauren Blackwood’s Within These Wicked Walls.)

And, of course, if you wrote something about old folks getting into unexpected shenanigans, I want to see it!

E. M. Anderson

She/They

Small/Independent Press
Traditional Publishing

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