Rena Rossner (she/her) joined Bradford Literary in 2026, after 15 years of agenting experience as both a foreign rights co-agent and a literary agent at The Deborah Harris Agency. Rena has sold over 170 books over the course of her career, from picture book, middle grade and young adult fiction to adult fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She was born in Miami Beach, Florida, but has spent her life living between two countries. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University’s Writing Seminars program, Trinity College, Dublin, and holds a MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is a mom to five children and a rescue pup named Diego Rivera, she loves sunflowers, making cocktails, cooking gourmet meals and working in her ceramic studio. She currently lives in Jerusalem.

Her debut novel, The Sisters of the Winter Wood (Orbit/Redhook, 2018), was listed as “One of the 100 Best Books” of the year by Publisher’s Weekly. Her second novel, The Light of the Midnight Stars (Orbit/Redhook, 2021), was chosen as an Amazon “Editor’s Choice” in the category of Fantasy. She also wrote a cookbook, Eating the Bible (Skyhorse, 2013) which was published in 5 languages. She has represented multiple National Book Award nominees and finalists, many New York Times Bestsellers, two Morris Award finalists and winners, Printz and Caldecott award winners, and too many Sydney Taylor Award and National Jewish Book Award winners to count.

Rena is a highly editorial agent, with a keen eye for spotting talent and willing to work with clients to hone that talent. She is highly collaborative and loves to brainstorm and come up with ideas together with clients and often works with them to build books and ideas from the ground up. Rena represents a diverse range of voices and is always interested in underrepresented stories, especially when incorporating folklore and mythology from all around the globe. She is always interested in stories from LGBTQ+ authors. She grew up on a steady diet of fairy tales as a child and is always interested in retellings and stories of the fae and other mythological beings from around the globe. She loves a good thriller or mystery – be it suspense/domestic/paranormal/historical and is not afraid of the dark. In fact, she loves horror and anything dark, especially if it’s dark and literary. Rena loves historical fiction in all its permutations. She’d love to find a literary romantasy, and has been a reader and love of vampire and werewolf tales for as long as she can remember. She’d really love to see a shapeshifter story which feels like it’s never been told before, or a vampire story that is a totally fresh take on the genre. Jewish stories will always have a special place in her heart and she is particularly proud of having sold books like The Last Words We Said by Leah Scheier, The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum, and When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb, which all prominently featured Jewish characters on their covers. She is keen to work with more author illustrators and is looking for select projects in non-fiction, especially in the mind/body/spirit space.

For more info on what Rena is looking for, check out her Manuscript Wishlist, Publisher’s Marketplace page, or her website. 

She is currently closed to submissions.