About Blue Flower Arts
Blue Flower Arts is a literary speakers agency representing artists for keynote readings and lectures, conferences, corporate meetings, workshops, and more.
Who We Are
For over fifteen years, Blue Flower Arts has been dedicated to the beauty of words and their transformative effect on and in the world.
We believe in the power of literature and the arts to help foster community, empathy, awareness, and provide a widening and encompassing vision of our humanity.
As a team of passionate agents and advocates, we offer a genuine literary sensibility and a fluency in contemporary culture that will help sponsors create meaningful events.
Blue Flower is a woman-owned and run company.
How We Work
We believe that the best events begin with a conversation, so we ask you to have a quick chat with us to start the process of booking a speaker. Email us at hello@blueflowerarts.com or call us at 845-677-8559 to get started.
Once we’ve had the chance to talk, you will be directed to fill out this form to formally invite a speaker to your event.
Finding the Right Speaker
Our acclaimed roster includes poets, fiction writers, journalists, literary activists, and others that are leading the most important cultural conversations of our time through their work.
You can meet our speakers individually here or explore topics and themes our authors can address including race, LGBTQI+ identity, First Year Experience and Common Reads, diversity and inclusion, and more here.
Our agents are always happy to help you select the right speaker for your event. If you’re looking for a speaker that is not on our roster, we are able to broker the engagement at no extra cost to you. We love helping to bring artists and audiences together.
Peruse our latest recommendations through our Bookshop!
Our History & Our Name
Blue Flower Arts was founded by Alison Granucci in 2006 as one of the first agencies of its kind. Anya Backlund, who has been with Blue Flower since 2014, assumed the role of president and owner in 2020. Blue Flower Arts represents literary giants including United States Poets Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award recipients, MacArthur “Genius” Fellows, and many more outstanding artists and thinkers.
We are named for the recurring symbol in Romantic poetry of the blue flower, first seen in the work of 18th century German poet Novalis, which represents an artistic and emotional striving for the infinite and unreachable. The blue flower was immortalized in an illustrated cover of The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke, designed by Margaret Neilson Armstrong, one of the first women book designers in the United States. Our current brand, by design collective Surplus+, builds from her empowering legacy and style.
Other Details
For fee and honorarium information, please give us a call.
We are not able to review unsolicited requests for representation.