Welcome to The Treasure Trove

Hi there! I’m Kelly Dyksterhouse, and I am a literary agent representing kidlit authors and illustrators at The Tobias Literary Agency. I am also an avid reader (good thing, given my job), a writer, and a literary craft junkie!

What is The Treasure Trove? In essence, it is a record of my readings, a sort of annotated bibliography. Why is this valuable? Well, I believe that all writers should be active readers, and that we all can learn from one another. The Treasure Trove is my newsletter, where I review and keep track of the books I’ve read and note elements of writing craft that stood out to me. I like to think of it as mining stories for gems of craft. This is a list for me to return to as a data base for use as I teach and edit. But I thought it may also be helpful to writers, to see the kind of craft that stands out to agents and to be able to learn from those who go before us. For, as Isaac Newton first said and many have paraphrased after, “we all stand on the shoulders of giants.”

So, subscribe if you’d like to follow along and I invite you to engage if you have thoughts about writing craft you’d like to share! (It’s free!)