Website: www.mayracalvani.com
Instagram: @mayracalvani
Agent: Jolene Haley
Agency: Donald Maass Literary Agency
Check out our #Agent121 page to book your own appointment.
Update: Jolene Haley has since taken over as Mayra’s agent as Kesia is now Commissioning Editor at MacMillan.
Award-winning, multi-genre Puerto Rican author Mayra Calvani has written fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. Her work has appeared in numerous publications such as The Writer, Writer’s Journal, Multicultural Review, Bloomsbury Review, among others.
She’s the co-author of the ForeWord Best Book of the Year Award winner, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing, as well as the International Latino Books Award winner, Latina Authors and Their Muses. She holds a BA in Creative Writing and an MA in Western Literature, and has taught classes at SavvyAuthors.com on the art of book reviewing and children’s picture book writing.
Under her pen name Zoe Kalo, she writes young adult fantasy and gothic fiction.
IAIP: How many years have you been writing?
MC: I started writing stories and short plays for school when I was about eleven. At fifteen, I wrote my first (super cheesy) romance novel in a school notebook. It was called ‘Ardent Waters’ and secretly passed from student to student in installments during class. I confess I was addicted to Harlequin novels at the time, which were super popular back then. I was also an avid reader of Agatha Christie and started several Christie-like mysteries which were left unfinished.
In college I wrote short stories, some of which were published in small literary magazines. Over the decades, I continued writing in different formats and genres, from articles to book reviews to fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. Some of my books were published by indie presses, while others I self-published. Although I’ve had multiple agents and won awards, I haven’t yet broken into traditional publishing. That is my dream. Either I’ll succeed, or I’ll die trying.
IAIP: How many books have you written at least one draft for? Are they all the same genre or do you dabble with different genres, different styles?
MC: I’ve dabbled in different genres, from picture books to YA/adult fiction to reference nonfiction. Not including picture books, I’ve drafted around ten books. Middle-grade fiction is new for me. I was very surprised to see how well it fit my voice. I would never have thought that.
IAIP: You booked a double Agent121 appointment with us. Did you discuss one or two of your novels with the agent concerned? Do you think the agent seemed interested in both manuscripts or more geared towards one?
MC: I’d been wanting to query Kesia Lupo for some time, but she was closed to queries. After researching her profile and listening to her interviews, I had a hunch she’d be a great match for me. Having booked consultations in the past, I was already familiar with Agent121, so when I saw she was available, I jumped at the opportunity. I booked two sessions back-to-back for two middle-grade novels—one completed and one a work in progress.
This was an investment and the first time I’d scheduled two consultations in a row with an agent. Even though one of my manuscripts was unfinished, I wanted Kesia to see I wasn’t just a “one-book” author. I hoped that by reading more than one sample of my work, she could get a strong sense of my voice and range.
To my amazement, she was interested in both projects. I sent her my completed middle-grade novel, VIOLETA’S ADVENTURES IN DOLL-LAND, a coming-of-age, magical realist Caribbean gothic horror that had won an Honorable Mention Award from the Historical Novel Society and shortlisted in the I Am Writing and Searchlight competitions. The manuscript also had interest from an editor I’d had a consultation with at the SCBWI Europolitan Conference a few months earlier. I included all these accolades at the top of my queries to make my project stand out. In the meantime, a month passed, and I kept querying.
Then my young adult work in progress was one of three winners in the Writing Day Workshops’ First Page Contest. In a serendipitous twist, and as I later found out, Kesia was one of the judges in that contest, though for another category. When she spotted my name and remembered me, she read my YA winning entry and liked it too, and that reminded her to read my middle-grade manuscript waiting in her inbox.
Momentum really picked up after this. To my surprise, two agents contacted me out of the blue. They had read my shortlisted entry for the Searchlight Awards and requested the full manuscript. About a week later, one passed, but the other offered representation. Of course, I informed Kesia and the other agents who had the full. Kesia read my manuscript on a flight back from a conference. Then she also offered rep. After a year and a half of querying, after so many ups and downs, I couldn’t believe it.
It’s still astonishing to me that even though I queried many agents, the two offers of representation I received didn’t come from any of the agents queried. Sometimes writers need to find other ways to get an agent’s attention. Just as agents are filters for editors, contests can serve as filters for agents. I believe awards and placing in competitions can help tremendously. Meeting agents and editors at conferences can help too, though it’s often hit or miss.
IAIP: Whereabouts were you in your querying journey when you enjoyed your two Agent121 sessions? Did you have full requests already?
MC: It’s been a long querying journey with twists and turns. VIOLETA’S ADVENTURES IN DOLL-LAND is my first middle-grade novel. I wrote the first draft in early 2023, soon after my mom passed away. Working on it became a way to channel my grief in ways I don’t fully understand. Each morning, after reading one of my mom’s poems, I would sit at my antique desk and write in longhand in a gothic-looking notebook, using the same fountain pen and ink. I had the soundtrack of Interview with the Vampire, Where the Crawdads Sing, The Goldfinch, and Defending Jacob playing through my headphones. Later, I edited the manuscript as I transcribed it to my computer. In general, I use Scrivener for early drafts before switching to Word. I spent several months revising the manuscript. At the time, I was represented by another agent, but she wasn’t interested in this project. We amicably parted ways in October 2023, and I began my search for a new agent soon after.
Initially the novel was written entirely in epistolary/letter format. Among the many rejections were also several personalized—and very helpful—feedback, saying I had a unique and neat concept, but the epistolary format was preventing the reading experience from being immersive. They advised to change some of the letters into actual scenes. I was resistant at first, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that several agents had brought up the same issue.
Thus, I started rewriting some of the letters into scenes. I first experimented with 3rd person POV (as opposed to the letters which obviously were in 1st person). I submitted the first chapters of this version to the Historical Novel Society Competition. To my astonishment, it won an Honorable Mention Award. Looking for an agent can be an emotional roller-coaster and like many writers, I was having doubts about my story, so the award was an incredible validation at a time when I really needed it.
However, I still couldn’t click with the 3rd person POV, so I switched the scenes I’d worked on to 1st person instead. This time the POV felt right, so I continued revising the rest of the novel. As I’ve always done in the past, I also worked with a freelance editor to make sure my novel was as finetuned and polished as possible. In any case, the manuscript ended up shortlisting in the competitions. It also moved on to the second round of judges for the Diverse Writers Grant (Speculative Literature Foundation) and made it to the quarter finals at the ScreenCraft Cinematic Prose Competition. All these placings boosted my confidence.
Then in October 2024 I had a one-on-one consultation with an editor at the SCBWI Europolitan Conference. This editor liked it enough to invite me to submit but she preferred working via an agent, so she gave me some referrals. At the conference, I also had the chance to pitch my concept to another editor, and he also invited me to submit. By the time I had my 121 with Kesia in February 2025, I had all these in my arsenal to share with her.
IAIP: Although it’s a lovely problem to have, receiving more than one offer, was it an agonising time then having to make the difficult decision of who to invest your career in?
MC: Receiving multiple offers can be conflicting, especially if you’re a new writer, because you tend to feel so incredibly grateful for the agent who makes the first offer. The first time it happened to me, I made the mistake of going with the first agent who made the offer and who happened to be the “nicer” one. Looking back, it was a mistake, and I should have signed with the more business-minded one who had the larger agency behind her. Live and learn! Luckily for writers nowadays, it’s easier to research agents online, and you can learn almost anything about an agent before you sign, as well as what essential questions to ask. But it can still be tough, especially if during the call you don’t “click” with the more experienced agent from the larger agency.
This time around, it wasn’t agonizing because I already really wanted to work with Kesia. That said, I would have been thrilled to work with the agent who made the first offer had she been the only one. I’m so grateful to her for having gotten the ball rolling!
IAIP: What is happening now behind the scenes with you and Kesia? Is she closely editing with you? Do you have a timescale for when your book will start to go out on submission to publishers?
MC: Kesia wanted to send me her editorial notes while they were still fresh in her mind, so she emailed them right after our call. Luckily, her notes fit into one page. They had to do with turning several more letters into actual scenes, as well as deleting a scene, writing a new one, and tweaking the ending. Prior to being an agent, Kesia was a senior editor at an UK publisher, and she was right on target. There was very little back and forth between us because we had already discussed revision during our call, so I had a clear vision.
I worked on the manuscript throughout most of April (I love to keep logs: 45 hours of work!) and sent her my revision on April 30th. Two weeks later she let me know she was happy with it and that it was ready to submit. As of last Wednesday May 21st, it’s out to editors. Fingers crossed!
IAIP: We wish you the best of luck with the next stage of your writing career. Huge congratulations, Mayra. Before you sign off, do you have any tips to querying writers on making the most of an #Agent121?
MC: There can be various reasons to book an Agent121. One is if you have a query and manuscript in their early stages and you need expert guidance on how to improve them. Another is if you want to pitch your work to a specific agent. Of course, it can also be a combination of the two. This was my case with Kesia. My queries and partials had already been polished extensively before our session, but I’d read how good she was with pitches. I figured that if she turned me down, at least I would walk out with a much stronger pitch.
I should mention that it took three tries. Prior to my 121 with Kesia in February 2025, I’d also booked separate sessions with two other agents back in late 2023. This was when the novel was still fully epistolary. I had heard how essential it was to get the voice and sensibility right in middle-grade novels, so above all, I wanted feedback on these. The agents in question weren’t interested in my novel but at least said that the concept was unique and that I’d gotten the voice and sensibility right.
Other than they represented middle-grade, these agents weren’t necessarily a great match for me. One of them didn’t even represent authors from outside the UK. But I was okay with that because they were known agents from prestigious agencies, and I wanted expert feedback. Looking back, I could have gotten more from my investment had I chosen agents who were a better match.
So, tip number one: before booking a 121, research agents to make sure they’re the right ones for you and your project! Read their Substack if they have one. Listen to their interviews on YouTube and/or podcasts (the Manuscript Academy podcast is excellent). While on the call, if they give you positive feedback, don’t be shy to ask if they’d be interested in reading the complete manuscript. Don’t be shy to ask, either, if you could query them once you’ve revised based on their advice. The worst that could happen is that they say no.
Perseverance is key—along with stubbornness, a hard shell, and blind faith. As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned that a little boldness can go a long way, too.
Thank you for helping writers in their quest, and for the opportunity to share my story!
Website: www.mayracalvani.com
Instagram: @mayracalvani
Agent: Kesia Lupo
Agency: Donald Maass Literary Agency
Check out our #Agent121 page to book your own appointment.