2024

Kiana (Kiki) Nguyen

Kiana (Kiki) Nguyen is a literary agent at Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Kiki Nguyen started in publishing in 2015 with an internship with Wunderkind PR, independent book publishing PR company, working on campaigns with authors such as Ernest Cline. There, she discovered a practical industry for her codependent love of fiction. In 2016, Kiki went on to intern with DMLA where she soon joined the team full-time as an assistant literary agent.

Kiki is now building her client list within young adult and adult fiction with a focus on queer and BIPOC authors.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

Dark, gritty, fun romps in Romance, Horror, and Domestic Suspense especially; both Young Adult and Adult. I want to have a good time with bitchy, irredeemable characters who do what they want when they want and have to suffer the consequences. If they have never cared about doing the right, responsible, legal thing they're already halfway to my heart. I want extroverts with personality and chaotic social lives, please I'm bored and dying. Bonus points if it's characters in their 20s-30s that feel like they're living in the 2020s.

Romance with heat and bite—the rom-coms are getting corny and lacking the "com" to begin with.

Horror that doesn't take itself too seriously and feels like the narrators are just as unreliable as the potential kill count. I'm bored by single family homes and ancient estates, so let's change the location and demographic of the characters, please.

SFF that pivots away from the rigamarole of royal politics, machinations, knighthood/guards, etc. etc. I want to have some hectic times with the serfdom, please, I beg.

MSWL here:
https://www.kiananguyen.com/mswl

Aemilia Phillips

Aemilia Phillips is an agent at Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency. She works with a range of fiction and non-fiction writers, including poet and National Book Award nominee José Olivarez, Founder of Latina Rebels Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, speculative short story author Ruben Reyes Jr, true crime expert Sarah Weinman, and Olympian Cassidy Krug, among many others.

She is particularly interested in writers who push conventional boundaries in order to address cultural, political, and social justice issues. A dual Mexican/American citizen with family on both sides of the border and interests in journalism, narrative non-fiction, voice driven fiction, and poetry, she looks for diverse, smart writing with an impactful story to tell.

For non-fiction she’s looking for driven, obsessed writers and topics that challenge the way we think about the world, with a particular interest in Latin American and feminist voices. She loves books that at first glance appear to be commercial, but that are also smart cultural critiques that force readers to examine new viewpoints. She’s fascinated by darker, complex fictional characters who upend preconceptions and stories with just a touch of magic.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

Aemilia Phillips is looking for writers who push conventional boundaries in order to address cultural, political, and social justice issues. With interests in journalism, narrative non-fiction, voice driven fiction, and poetry, she looks for diverse, smart writing with an impactful story to tell. For non-fiction she’s looking for obsessed writers and topics that challenge the way we think about the world, with a particular interest in Latin American and feminist voices. She loves books that appear to be commercial, but that are also smart cultural critiques that force readers to examine new viewpoints. She’s fascinated by darker fictional characters who upend preconceptions, and stories with just a touch of magic.

Specializes In

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural/Global Fiction, Short Story Collections, Family Saga

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, Memoir, Multicultural/Global Perspectives, Narrative, Women's concerns

Considers

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Crime, Family Saga, LGBTQIA+, Graphic Novels, Horror, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural/Global Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Short Story Collections, Thrillers/Suspense

NONFICTION: Adventure/True Story, Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, LGBTQIA+, Current Affairs, Food & Lifestyle, History, Memoir, Multicultural/Global Perspectives, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Politics, Science, Self Help, Sports, Travel, Women's concerns, True Crime

Kerry D’Agostino

Kerry D’Agostino is a literary agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd. She represents literary and upmarket fiction, and her authors include novelists Erin Adams, Andrea Bobotis, Leesa Cross-Smith, Nancy Wayson Dinan, Micah Dean Hicks, Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, Leslie Pietrzyk and Liza Wieland. She is particularly drawn to character-driven work, unconventional plot structures, unreliable narrators, complicated family relationships, and speculative elements that challenge our ways of thinking about the world. Kerry is a graduate of Bowdoin College, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Columbia Publishing Course. She currently serves as Co-Vice President on the Board of Directors for the Association of American Literary Agents, where she is also a member of the organization’s Programming Committee. Kerry is also a member of Curtis Brown’s Inclusion & Accountability Committee. She lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, with her husband, daughter, and two cats.

Emi Ikkanda

Emi Ikkanda is an Executive Editor acquiring nonfiction and select fiction projects at Tiny Reparations Books, Dutton, and Plume at Penguin Random House. She previously worked at Seal Press at Hachette, Spiegel & Grau at Random House, and Henry Holt at Macmillan. She publishes a diverse list of award-winning, bestselling, and culturally relevant books. Over the years she has edited #1 New York Times and international bestselling authors, and edited winners or finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Carnegie Medal, Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, and the TIME 100.

Recent highlights on her list include #1 New York Times bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo’s Mediocre, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s NBA finalist The Undocumented Americans, Carla Power’s Pulitzer finalist Home, Land, Security, Minda Harts’s Right Within, Arianna Davis’s What Would Frida Do?, international bestselling novelist Michael David Lukas’s The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, Sanaë Lemoine’s New York Times Editor’s Choice The Margot Affair, NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott’s Back to Earth, and former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao’s Reset.

Specializes In

FICTION:

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, LGBTQIA+, Current Affairs, History, Humor, Memoir, Multicultural/Global Perspectives, Narrative, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Religion, Spirituality, Women's concerns, Self Help

Considers

FICTION:

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Dating/Relationships, Gift Books, Investigative Journalism, LGBTQIA+, Current Affairs, History, Humor, Medical, Memoir, Multicultural/Global Perspectives, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Parenting, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Religion, Science, Self Help, Spirituality, Technology, Travel, Women's concernsod & Lifestyle, Health & Fitness, Humor, Medical, Music

Serene Hakim

Serene Hakim is an agent at Ayesha Pande Literary. She represents authors in a variety of genres, from MG fantasy to adult literary fiction to contemporary YA. Serene is particularly interested in both YA and adult fiction that has international themes, highlights a variety of cultures, and focuses on underrepresented and/or marginalized voices. Specifically, she’s looking for writing that explores different meanings of identity, home, family and parenthood/motherhood and is currently prioritizing projects in the kids' space, though she is still selectively taking on adult writers. Her educational background is in French and women’s studies, and she holds an MA in French-English translation from New York University.

Lucy Cleland

Lucy Cleland is a literary agent representing idea-driven and narrative nonfiction of all stripes, upmarket fiction, and select children’s projects. Her list is bold and eclectic, united by an overarching interest in how culture shapes us (and how we shape it). Her clients have been Pulitzer finalists, winners of the NBCC Award and PEN America Awards, recipients of MacArthur “Genius” grants, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; their books have been featured in the New Yorker’s Briefly Noted, New York Time’s Editors’ Choice, and best books of the year lists, as well as ranked as USA Today Bestsellers and selected for Book of the Month Club.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

I'm always looking for excellent writing in nonfiction on just about any topic, from pop culture to history, as well as literary narrative nonfiction that deeply explores a unique subject or experience, and ‘big idea’ books that carve out new territory in contemporary conversations. In fiction, I'm seeking novels animated by potent concepts (speculative and magical realism welcome!), as well as historical fiction that immerses readers in non-Western settings. Worlds with a special twist (such as those where just one thing is different) really appeal to me, and I am a junkie for plots that get my heart pounding. I'm also a sucker for love stories and everything from poignant deep-dives into the pains and pleasures of human connection to new spins on old tropes catches my eye, whether literary or commercial in craft.

Specializes In

FICTION: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Multi-Cultural/Global Fiction, Commercial Fiction, Thrillers/Suspense, Science Fiction

NONFICTION: Commercial Fiction, Historical Fiction, Horror, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural/Global Fiction, Thrillers/Suspense, LGBTQIA+

Considers

FICTION: Adventure/True Story, Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, LGBTQIA+, Current Affairs, History, Multicultural/Global Perspectives, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Self Help, Psychology, True Crime

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, Current Affairs, LGBTQIA+, History, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Psychology, Pop Culture, True Crime

Chris Bucci

Chris Bucci represents bestselling and award-winning fiction and non-fiction authors including, Bath Haus by PJ Vernon; Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid; Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything? by Timothy Caulfield; Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar; and The War Widow by Tara Moss.

Chris began his career at the University of Toronto Press as an acquisitions editor in the social sciences. He joined HarperCollins Canada in 2003 as a non-fiction editor and then moved to McClelland & Stewart. In 2008 he joined The McDermid Agency as a literary agent and later bought the agency, along with Martha Webb. In 2017 they merged with the Cooke Agency to form CookeMcDermid where Chris was Proprietor and Literary Agent before joining Aevitas in 2020.

Chris aims to work with some of the culture’s best writers, thinkers and experts—authors whose work helps us to interpret and understand our times as well as our future.

Eric Smith

Mitchell Waters

MITCHELL WATERS joined Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents in 2019, having previously worked at Curtis Brown for twenty-four years. He represents fiction and non-fiction for adult and young adult markets. Mitchell represents a wide array of literary and commercial fiction, including mysteries, thrillers and suspense, crime, family sagas, LGBTQ+, historical fiction, humor and satire, multi-cultural narratives, upmarket women's fiction, and realistic YA. He has a keen interest in historical/literary mysteries and suspense. He is drawn to voice-driven narratives that are both dark and humorous and he is seeking the next epic LGBTQ+ love story. He would also be happy to discover a contemporary Middlemarch.

Susanna Einstein

Susanna Einstein (she/her/hers) has worked as a literary agent since 2005 and launched Einstein Literary Management in 2015. She has worked in publishing since 1995, first in the publicity and editorial departments at what was then called Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing) and then as a literary scout at Maria B. Campbell Associates. A native New Yorker, she graduated with distinction from Northwestern University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.

Susanna Einstein is an enthusiastic member of the Association of American Literary Agents. She has a particular fondness for crime fiction, upmarket commercial women’s fiction, Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction, and narrative non-fiction. Some representative clients in those areas are Ree Drummond, David Ellis, Jennie Fields, Rachael Herron, Emmy Laybourne, Sarah Seltzer, Daniel Stashower, and Kitty Zeldis. She likes a good story, well told.

KIANA (KIKI) NGUYEN

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

AEMILIA PHILLIPS

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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KERRY D'AGOSTINO

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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EMI IKKANDA

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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SERENE HAKIM

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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SPECIALIZES IN

CONSIDERS

LUCY CLELAND

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

CHRIS BUCCI

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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Specializes In

Considers

ERIC SMITH

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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MITCHELL WATERS

What I'm Looking For

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Specializes In

Considers

SUSANNA EINSTEIN

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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