Julia Silk
Julia worked as a bookseller and editor for 18 years - latterly as Publisher of digital crime imprint The Murder Room at Orion - before becoming an agent in 2016, representing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction. She has an MA in Comparative Literature from UEA, and is always open to new fiction and non-fiction clients.
In fiction she is looking for smart, compelling writing across the spectrum from commercial to literary, particularly when it opens a door into a previously inaccessible world or experience (Crazy Rich Asians, Prep), exposes our flaws and hypocrisies in new ways (Such a Fun Age, My Year of Rest and Relaxation), or upends expectations with wit and energy (My Sister the Serial Killer, Yellowface). She is also drawn to the combination of the acutely personal and the universal that makes great memoir (Educated, Wild, House of Glass), as well as the blurring of the lines of form and genre in books across categories such as true crime/memoir (The Fact of a Body) and the novel/short stories in A Visit From the Goon Squad. She is a huge fan of upmarket crime and thrillers by writers such as Gillian Flynn, Liz Nugent and Jane Harper, and is also on the lookout for immaculately voiced historical fiction that reflects contemporary preoccupations. And if you have written a novel as simultaneously bittersweet and life-affirming as Catherine Newman's We All Want Impossible Things, please send it to her immediately!
In narrative non-fiction she is keen to hear from journalists and experts illuminating new stories and previously unexplored subjects; on the practical side she represents a number of writers in health, wellbeing and lifestyle, and is interested in original evidence-based proposals in this area from experts with a strong platform. She loves to work with writers and on books that shape and change readers’ view of the world.
Julia grew up in London in a noisy Middle Eastern Jewish family, and is strongly committed to increasing representation and accessibility for writers across the industry. She regularly supports and contributes to the work of organisations and events such as Word Factory, Spread the Word, Byte the Book and the Working Class Writers Festival, through workshops, panel events, 1-2-1s and mentoring. She was the judge of the 2021 Bath Novel Award, and is a judge of the Scratch Books short story competition.
Note: Although Julia enjoys and represents speculative crossover fiction, she does not represent SFF or children's and YA (apart from by existing clients).
