Emma Leong
Emma is a Literary Agent in the London office, building a list of fiction and non-fiction. Her publishing career started here at Janklow and Nesbit in 2019, with a background in Law and Psychology. She is editorially focused, actively taking on debut writers and keen to build and nurture international careers for them, working very closely with the New York office and Translation Rights team.
My clients range from literary novelist Chukwuebuka Ibeh, award-winning journalist and novelist Olivia Petter, psychological thriller writer Helena Echlin, romance writer Anise Starre, to technologist Joycelyn Longdon, sensory scholar Dr. Ally Louks, and on behalf of the US office, Erica Berry, Emmy-Award screenwriter Aisha Muharrar, Women's Prize longlistee Dawnie Walton, and Yale historian Vanessa Ogle, to name a few.
You can read about some (but not all!) of my recent deals here on Publishers Marketplace.
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I admire novels that are psychologically astute, sensuous, and true to the human condition, where I can feel deeply for its characters and their moral complexities. I am currently looking for literary coming-of-age novels with a powerful love story at their heart: think Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman, Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Normal People by Sally Rooney. I’m also drawn to books that never shy away from exploring the all-too-real issues, yet can find the light and play in its chaos: novelists I admire in this space include Ruth Ozeki, Jonathan Franzen, Natasha Brown.
I am also looking for feel-good book club fiction that is not only smart and gorgeously witty, but also sensitively employed and warm-hearted. Curtis Sittenfeld's Romantic Comedy, Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures do this brilliantly for me. I would too love to see anything propulsive, forensic, ripe with suspense and mystery - think Donna Tartt's The Secret History, Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace.
On the more commercial end, I am always looking for beautifully constructed, heart-racing thrillers that can question the reader's deepest fears, desires, perceptions: think Chris Whittaker's All the Colours of the Dark or Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere. And would love to see any story that can take the reader to endless possibilities and offer unexpected connection, romance, or adventure, regardless of genre or age.
In non-fiction, I focus on books that encourage readers to be more understanding to themselves and the world they live in, looking for razor-sharp, expert-driven insight into the human condition and how we can understand human life. Favourite reads include Susan Cain’s Quiet, Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark, Cat Bohannon’s Eve, Gabor Mate's The Myth of Normal, and bell hooks’ All About Love.