My Agent

By Karol Nielsen

PROMPT—I am grateful for ...

My mother grew frustrated when literary agents failed to find an editor for my my first book, a memoir about love and trauma during the Gulf War and its aftermath. She asked to take over as my agent. She did research, mailed out book proposals, and found an editor for my book in three weeks. She didn’t stop there. She reordered my poetry collection and entered it into contest after contest. I didn’t win, but one of the publishers took my book anyway. Later, she found an editor for my memoir about my father’s tour in Vietnam and our trip back together to see all the places he had been during the war. Once, my friend asked if my mother would represent his work, too, but she said she only wanted one client—me.

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Karol Nielsen is the author of the memoirs Raising the Price of the House, Walking A&P, and Black Elephants and three poetry chapbooks. Her first memoir was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her full-length poetry collection was a finalist for the Colorado Prize for Poetry. Her poem “This New Manhattan” was a finalist for the Ruth Stone Poetry Prize. Karol writes from New York City.