Nonfiction Literary Agents Open to Submissions
Literary agents are gatekeepers of the publishing industry. Find nonfiction literary agents open to submissions in this post. List will be updated regularly.
Literary agents are gatekeepers of the publishing industry. Find nonfiction literary agents open to submissions in this post. List will be updated regularly.
Literary agents are important decision makers in the publishing process for authors who wish to be published by many of the big publishers. However, all literary agents do not represent all genres. In fact, an agent who claims to do this should be approached with caution. Just as authors tend to specialize in one or two genres, agents find niches and specialize in a handful of genres.
In this post, I've collected recently shared agent spotlights with literary agents who are accepting nonfiction submissions. This list will be updated regularly with new agents added to the top.
Gail Fortune of The Talbot Fortune Agency
Gail Fortune is a literary agent with The Talbot Fortune Agency and former book editor with over 25 years of publishing experience. Prior to becoming an agent she spent 16 years at Putnam Berkley (now part of Penguin Random House), where she rose from Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief to Executive Editor.
Her authors won RITAs and Agatha’s and were nominated for Edgar and Anthony Awards. She has edited and agented New York Times bestsellers and Publishers Weekly Books of the Year.
She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Rita Rosenkranz of the Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency
A well-established agent, who began her career as an editor at major publishing houses, Rita Rosenkranz represents almost exclusively adult nonfiction titles. Her wide-ranging list includes health, history, parenting, music, how-to, popular science, business, biography, sports, popular reference, cooking, writing, humor, spirituality, illustrated books, and general interest titles. Rita works with major publishing houses, as well as regional publishers that handle niche markets.
Representative titles include Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad by Betty DeRamus (Atria Books; essence.com best-seller), Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World (Wiley; James Beard Award winner) by Gil Marks; 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker (Da Capo Press; New York Times bestseller, MS Awareness Award Winner, Books for a Better Life), and A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even if You Flunked Algebra) by Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. (Tarcher).
She is a member of the Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR), The Authors Guild, and Women's Media Group.
Peter Rubie of FinePrint Literary Management
Peter Rubie is currently the CEO of FinePrint Literary management, a NYC-based literary agency. He grew up in England and was a Fleet Street journalist, before becoming one of the youngest news editors for BBC Radio News. He came to the U.S. in 1981, and worked as a freelance editor and writer for agents and major publishers before becoming the adult fiction editor at Walker & Co., for 6 years. He left that job to become a literary agent.
He has also been an adjunct professor in the New York University publishing faculty, where for 10 years he taught the only university-level course in the country on how to become a literary agent. For several years, he was also the director of the book publishing section of NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute. Peter thinks of himself as “an editor in recovery” who picks and chooses various ed boards for his clients’ projects. He often works extensively on the editorial content and presentation of a project before submitting it.
Kat Enright of the Seymour Agency
Kat Enright (she/they) is an Associate Agent at the Seymour Agency, and they represent both fiction and nonfiction. Prior to joining the Seymour Agency, they worked in a variety of departments in publishing, including Sales and Editorial, and they have a keen understanding of the many stages that a book must go through in order to reach bookshelves.
As someone who lives on the corner of many intersections, they are most especially interested in elevating voices of marginalized authors.
Hannah Brattesani of Emma Sweeney Agency
Hannah Brattesani is a literary agent and the foreign rights coordinator at Emma Sweeney Agency. She received her MA (Hons) in English Literature from the University of St. Andrews and graduated with the Douglas Dunn Award for Creative Writing.
Hannah started as the agency assistant at Emma Sweeney Agency, then took over the foreign rights coordinator role and is currently building her own list as an agent. During her first year at the agency, she also worked as the contracts coordinator at Blue Flower Arts, a literary speakers bureau based in Millbrook, New York.
As a Scottish immigrant to the United States, Hannah enjoys books that allow her to explore and make some sense of this American melting pot she now calls home.
Eric Smith of P.S. Literary
Eric Smith is a literary agent with P.S. Literary, working across multiple categories, and has worked with New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors. When he isn’t busy working on other people’s books, sometimes he writes his own. His latest novel, The Girl and the Grove, was published by Flux in 2018, and his next novel, Don’t Read the Comments, will be published by Inkyard Press in January 2020.
He currently lives in Philadelphia with his wife, son, and overly affectionate corgi.
Dominic Yarabe of Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency
Dominic Yarabe joined Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency in 2018. As a multiracial second-generation American citizen, she is particularly drawn to characters and stories that traverse the complexities of the immigrant experience. However, she’ll read anything that is keenly observed and transports her outside of her tiny New York apartment.
Dominic graduated Phi Beta Kappa from her honors college at University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a B.A. in English. Before joining the agency, she taught for two summers in China and interned in New York, mitigating her transition from cornfield to city.
Keely Boeving of WordServe Literary
Keely Boeving is an agent with WordServe Literary. After receiving her B.A. in English from the University of Virginia, she went on to attend the Denver Publishing Institute and then began her career in New York working in the editorial departments of Bloomsbury and then Oxford University Press, where she acquired books for the trade history list.
She moved back to her home state of Colorado in 2014 and began her own freelance editorial company before joining WordServe the following year. She lives in Denver with her husband and their twins.
Jevon Bolden of Embolden Media Group
Editor, writer, writing coach, and now literary agent, Jevon Bolden moved into her latest role as literary agent out of necessity to more effectively serve her existing network of authors and is now opening her transom to other authors needing the right representation and publishing home for their most treasured messages and stories. She operates under her own boutique publishing consulting firm, Embolden Media Group.
Starting her 15-year career in traditional book publishing as a copy editor, she moved quickly into senior editor and acquisitions roles with publishers for both adult Christian nonfiction and children’s nonfiction titles. The books Jevon has written as other people or edited as herself have appeared on national best-seller lists and have sold millions of copies around the world.
Jevon has a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in sociology, from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and lives in sunny Central Florida with her family and Cocker Spaniel, Langston Hughes.
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Joseph Perry of Perry Literary, Inc.
Joseph Perry is a new agent at Perry Literary, Inc. Before founding Perry Literary, Joseph began his book publishing career when he attended the New York University Summer Publishing Institute in 2010. After interning at FinePrint Literary Management, Joseph enrolled at St. John’s University School of Law to learn about the legal aspects of publishing and graduated with a juris doctor in 2015.
During law school, Joseph interned in the legal departments at Hachette Book Group; Rodale, Inc.; and William Morris Endeavor, as well as the subsidiary rights department at Columbia University Press. Joseph also holds a B.A. and M.A. in English from St. Bonaventure University.
Maureen Moretti of P.S. Literary
Maureen Moretti began her publishing career as an intern with several prestigious literary agencies before joining P.S. Literary as an associate agent. She holds a B.A. from Saint Mary’s College of California and attended the Columbia Publishing Course.
Within nonfiction she is searching for narrative nonfiction, culture, history, biography, LGBTQ+, cookbooks, and lifestyle. Within fiction she is looking for women’s fiction, thrillers, LGBTQ+, romance, select science fiction, literary fiction and genre-bending unique voices.
Claire Harris of Foundry Literary + Media
Claire received her B.A. in English from The University of Texas at Austin and attended the NYU Summer Publishing Institute before joining Foundry Literary + Media. She enjoys the creative process of working with writers and collaborating closely with them throughout all stages of their careers. Claire is a thriller fanatic, candy addict, and a lover of all things creepy.
Her favorite place to curl up with a good book is on a screened porch during a thunderstorm. She’s been on more ghost tours than she can count.
Cecilia Lyra of The Rights Factory
Cecilia Lyra holds a Master’s Degree in Banking and Financial Law from Boston University and is completing a graduate certificate in publishing. In 2016, she bid adieu to her life as lawyer and professor of law to become a writer and a literary agent. She blames this heretical career move on her nine-year-old-self, who was bitten by the reading bug and began to dream of the day when she would work with books.
When she isn’t devouring novels—or dessert—Cecilia can be found drinking wine, writing her own novels, and snuggling with Babaganoush, her adorable English bulldog.
Ann Tanenbaum of Tannenbaum International Literary Agency
Ann Tanenbaum is a veteran of the publishing industry with 50 years of experience. Over the course of her career, she has held editorial and marketing positions at The Viking Press and Random House as well as executive positions at Harry N. Abrams Inc., Doubleday International, and Newsweek.
In addition to representing books on seasoned gallery artists and museums, the theatre, and many children’s books, Ann has a commitment to nurturing projects on current affairs, politics, and history.
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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
