Agent interview: Carrie Plitt

Carrie Plitt is a literary agent at Felicity Bryan Associates.

Before joining Felicity Bryan Associates as an agent in 2016, Carrie Plitt worked for five years at C&W Literary Agency. She represents award-winning authors of non-fiction in categories including science, nature, history and current affairs, and writers of literary and book-club fiction. She was shortlisted for Agent of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards and named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2018. You can view more about Carrie on her agency page here and follow her on Twitter here.

What is your favourite nature writing book and why?

It's too difficult to pick just one, but recent nature writing books that I have enjoyed are To the River by Olivia Laing, Out of the Woods by Luke Turner, Footprints by David Farrier, Outpost by Dan Richards and Everybody Needs Beauty by Samantha Walton. In all of these books, the authors write beautifully and seriously about nature, but also use nature as a prism to explore other aspects of life.

What first attracted you to the submissions of the nature writers you represent?

Sharp writing and an approach to nature that is not just about beauty or wonder but instead thinking deeply about the contemporary world and the human condition.

What is the mark of a successful proposal for narrative non-fiction, and what do you look for particularly?

I am always looking for a strong, original idea; a distinctive voice; a convincing structure; and a narrative that pulls me along even in the proposal. 

Where is your favourite place in the natural world to read?

My garden! I love to sit in a deck chair reading in it while watching the birds come and go from the feeder, and smelling the grass and roses.