TUGEAU 2 ART & LITERARY AGENCY
We are a diverse group of dedicated, timely, and enthusiastic authors, illustrators and author-illustrators from around the world. Our focus is in children’s publishing - board books, picture books, chapter books, graphics, and YA. But our expertise does not stop there. T2 creatives have collaborated on magazine work, advertising campaigns, editorial features, toys, games, gifts, greeting cards, and more.
We are a well-versed and evolved Team ready to meet our client's needs. For creatives, our boutique size allows the Agents space to give full-service attention in a family-like atmosphere. We look for long-term relationships and work toward forging growth and successful career paths specific to each creative. The T2 Agency celebrated 20 years in business in 2023.
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MEET OUR AGENTS!
Nicole Tugeau is the agent-owner behind the T2 Team. With 23 years experience as both an agent and agency owner, she is ecstatic about her ever-growing Agency and committed to working hard and ethically for the network of bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators that surround her. What Nicole enjoys most about being an Agent is the partnership-making, the friendships and, of course, the success stories. Nicole is a regular contributor to conferences and events and a growing number of colleges and universities that support the visual arts and the children's publishing industry. She is also committed to the community of children's agents and helped to found an independent agent network, KidLitAgents, that chats and zooms regularly to discuss industry, business and contractual topics.
Nicole started the Agency with her artist husband, Jeremy Tugeau, in 2003 out of their downtown apartment in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The couple relocated closer to home in 2005 settling east of Cleveland in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and starting their family. Jeremy is a public school art teacher, and Nicole is able to connect more vibrantly with the New York industry and high trade publishing. Today, the agency is home to three amazing Associate Agents - Ethan Long, Heather Long and Carter Hasegawa - and over 90 gorgeous, award-winning authors, illustrators and author-illustrators.
When she's not working at making Tugeau 2 the best agency in the world, you'll find Nicole at the gym, teaching yoga (she's a 200-hour CYT), working in the yard, cooking, reading, learning Italian, playing the banjo, or planning her family's next adventure. Nicole and Jeremy are proud parents to three wonderful "big" kids, Ruby (19), George (18) and Harry (14).
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For representation consideration, please follow the submission guidelines on the CONTACT page. For all other inquiries including campus and industry speaking engagements please contact Nicole at nicole@tugeau2.com.
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Heather Long has worn many creative hats, from art buyer at Harcourt Publishers to author of two children’s books, Max and Milo: Go to Sleep and Max and Milo: The Mixed-up Message. She has been instrumental in managing Ethan's career and is passionate about helping others achieve their creative goals. Now living in Colorado, Heather enjoys hiking, traveling, and reading.
Ethan Long has been entertaining and educating children since 1991, starting with illustrations for Nickelodeon, Scholastic, and publishers like Harcourt and Houghton Mifflin. He has written and illustrated over 150 books, including Fright Club, Tickle the Duck, and Up, Tall and High, which won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award. Ethan also created the Playhouse Disney series Tasty Time with ZeFronk and PBSKIDS.com's Scribbles and Ink (both nominated for Daytime Emmys.) Passionate about mentoring, he now enjoys guiding artists through the publishing process as an agent. When not working, Ethan spends time with his wife Heather, their three grown kids, and their dog, Auggie.
"For us, your stories must be authentic, well-written, and evoke a reaction. Your illustrations need to connect with people. If your work isn’t connecting or eliciting a response, then it’s not working.
In publishing, if you’re not willing to invest time into work you don’t get paid for, that’s a problem. Creating new images and writing stories is about experimenting—trying and trying again over days, weeks, months, and even years. If you’re not prepared to create, learn, and improve without immediate compensation, this partnership isn’t the right fit.
We are not “art reps” pounding the pavement to secure jobs for you. If art buyers discover your work on this curated website or through submissions, fantastic. But our mission is to help you tell your stories, refine your craft, and grow through your writing and illustrations. We believe in our approach because we see it work. Many of our artists, after putting in the hard, unpaid, and/or low-paying work, are now thriving with exciting, high-paying, high profile projects. Others are still in the grind, but they keep going—and so do we—because they’re committed to the process.
This is the long game. You have to be willing to play it. We’re here for the dedicated, the determined, and the resilient. If that’s you, let’s make magic. If not, we’re not the team for you."
—Heather and Ethan
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Heather and Ethan are currently closed to submissions.
For all other inquiries including campus and industry speaking engagements please contact:
Heather at heather@tugeau2.com
Ethan at ethan@tugeau2.com
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Carter Hasegawa has been in the children’s book world for nearly 20 years—as a book seller for various indies across the US, as an editor at Candlewick Press, and now, as a literary agent. Why kids’ books? It began in the late-90s with Andrew Clement’s Frindle, became a solid go-to genre with Jerry Spinelli’s Maniac Magee, and finally, it became a wished-for career with Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. “The thing I’ve always loved about children’s literature,” he says, “is that beyond the sheer range of incredible stories, it’s always served as a sort of testing ground for me: of new ideas, of new experiences, of new viewpoints, of emotional extremes.”
Carter is incredibly proud of the work he did while at Candlewick, but he’s especially looking forward to finding and developing new talent – authors, author-illustrators, illustrators – and having a hand in crafting some of the best books out there.
When asked what he’s looking for in a book, he compares it to a particular scene from the movie version of The NeverEnding Story: “The main character, Bastian, is so drawn to a book he finds at a used bookstore that he steals away with it and hides out in his school’s attic and begins to read. In that moment, all that matters is the
book. To hold it, turn its pages, fall into its story . . . it’s magic.”
In addition to the already-mentioned titles, some of his favorite books include Watercress, My Papi Has a Motorcycle, Big, Tar Beach, Wednesday Wars, Ender’s Game, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Notorious Benedict Arnold, and SO MANY others. Carter is also an active mentor/speaker for SCBWI, The Writing Barn, Inked Voices, and more.
Originally from Seattle, he now lives in Boston with his librarian wife and their two young sons.
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Carter is open to Author, Illustrator and Author-Illustrator submissions via Query Tracker here.
For all other inquiries including campus and industry speaking engagements please contact Carter at carter@tugeau2.com.
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