8 Agents Seeking Literary Fiction NOW

Jonathan Wolstenholme

Updated 4/1/25

Here are eight agents looking for literary fiction. Literary agents often make a distinction between literary and commercial fiction. In a nutshell, commercial fiction is popular fiction that falls into a genre. Literary fiction has long-lasting social content, features a more complex writing style, and is innovative.

The distinction between commercial/genre/popular books and literary work is not hard and fast. 1984 by George Orwell is genre fiction (dystopian), and is wildly popular, but it is not considered commercial fiction, because it is a work of social commentary.

IMPORTANT: You should NEVER query an agent without checking the agency website first. Submission requirements change, and agents may close their lists, or switch agencies.

Don't submit to two agents at the same agency simultaneously. If one rejects you, you may then submit to another.

You can find a comprehensive list of dozens of new and established agents actively looking for new clients here: Agents Seeking Clients.

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Mitch Hoffman (Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency)

Mitch Hoffman joined the Aaron Priest Literary Agency as a Senior Agent in 2015. A 20-year veteran of the publishing industry, he was most recently Vice-President, Executive Editor at Grand Central Publishing. Mitch is actively building a list of authors writing across the spectrum of fiction and nonfiction, including thrillers, suspense, crime fiction, and literary fiction, as well as narrative nonfiction, politics, popular science, history, memoir, current events, and pop culture. His clients include Meg Bortin, Raymond Khoury, Charles Linehan, Tom Rob Smith, and Radha Vatsal.

How to Submit: Please submit a one-page query letter via e-mail. Please do not send attachments. However a first chapter pasted into the body of an e-mail query is acceptable. Send queries to queryhoffman [@] aaronpriest.com.

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Caryn Karmatz Rudy (DeFiore and Company)

Caryn Karmatz Rudy joined DeFiore and Company in the fall of 2010. Prior to becoming a literary agent, Caryn spent seventeen years as an editor of both fiction and nonfiction for Warner Books/Grand Central Publishing. Her experience on the other side of the publishing desk has armed her with invaluable insight into the hurdles editors face throughout the entire publishing process from the book’s initial acquisition to the marketing, publicity and sales vital to ensuring strong sales…and she believes falling shamelessly in love with a book is the ultimate weapon in any agent’s arsenal.

How to Submit: Please email at Caryn@defliterary.com, using the word “Query” and your book’s title in the subject line. Please include a brief, compelling description of the book in the email, along with a short bio, and for fiction and memoir, please include the first five pages of the manuscript in the body of the email. Attachments will not be opened unless I have requested them.

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Mackenzie Williams of Janklow & Nesbit Associates

Mackenzie began her publishing career at 19, when she worked with Jia Tolentino on her acclaimed essay collection TRICK MIRROR (Random House, 2019). She has also collaborated with children’s and YA author Nora Neus on several graphic novels that are forthcoming from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. She attended the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Scholar and earned distinguished degrees in Political & Social Thought and English Literature. She joined Janklow & Nesbit six months after graduation. Originally from Seattle, she lives in Manhattan with too many books.

What she is seeking: She is interested in building her own list of literary fiction, short story collections, memoirs, and narrative nonfiction.


How to submit: Follow the agency guidelines HERE. 

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Stephanie Steiker  (Regal Hoffmann & Associates LLC)

Stephanie Steiker joined Regal Hoffmann in 2015. From 2008 to 2015 she was Associate Director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, working with prominent figures in literature, academia, and the arts. Previously she has worked for the online magazine Words Without Borders; the journal East European Politics and Societies; and the New School's Transregional Center for Democratic Studies. A native New Yorker with a degree in comparative literature from Brown University, she lived in Poland from 1999 to 2001, has a background in documentary film, and for several years wrote about the downtown NY music scene for The New Yorker. Stephanie is open to submissions in serious and narrative non-fiction, as well as literary fiction (including graphic novels). In non-fiction, her interests are history, philosophy, current affairs, literary and cultural studies; biography and memoir; music, photography, and issues of racial and economic justice. She's enthusiastic about international writing (reads in French, Spanish, and Polish), and has a thing for prose written by poets.  

How to submit: To submit to Stephanie, please email stephanie@rhaliterary.com.

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Shannon Hassan (Marsal Lyon Literary)

Before becoming an agent, Shannon was the Acquisitions Editor at Fulcrum Publishing, and prior to that, a corporate attorney at Arnold & Porter in New York. She received her JD from Harvard and her BA from George Washington University.

How to Submit: Please use her querymanager HERE.
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Kerry D’Agostino (Curtis Brown)

Kerry D’Agostino started working at Curtis Brown, Ltd. in 2011 as assistant to Tim Knowlton and Holly Frederick in the Film and Television Department. Before Curtis Brown, she received her certificate in publishing from the Columbia Publishing Course, her masters in Art in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her bachelors from Bowdoin College.

How to Submit: Please e-mail query letters to kd [@] cbltd.com, along with a synopsis and three sample chapters.

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Peter Rubie (FinePrint Literary Management)

Peter Rubie is a former BBC Radio and Fleet Street journalist and for several years was the director of the publishing section of the New York University Summer Publishing Institute. He was a member of the NYU faculty for 10 years, and taught the only university-level course in the country on how to become a literary agent.

How to Submit: Use his submission form HERE.

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Cecilia Lyra (PS Literary)

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 literary agent.

How to submit: Queries should be directed to query@psliterary.com.