Salma Begum

Salma is seeking confident, immersive, ambitious, narrative-driven writing. She works under the tenet that quality need not be to the sacrifice of commercial success. Having come from editorial at Picador (Pan Macmillan), Zaffre and Manilla Press (Bonnier Books UK), she is keenly aware of what it takes for a book to win a publishing contract. As an agent, Salma works closely on manuscript development while always considering marketability and timing to give her authors the best shot at finding their readership.

Story is non-negotiable for Salma, regardless of whether the work is a high-concept horror or a literary doorstopper. Her submission wishlist includes an epic love story like The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai; novels capturing specific moments in recent history such as Hari Kunzru’s examination of the London art scene in the nineties and pandemic-era New York in Blue Ruin; and tightly plotted narratives that use form to explore the extremes of human psychology and society akin to Kenzaburō Ōe's A Personal Matter and Anuk Arudpragasam’s The Story of a Brief Marriage.

Salma loves a love story, especially one that makes her belly-laugh and ugly-cry. Her favourites include The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, One Day by David Nicholls, Normal People by Sally Rooney, Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman, The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. Tears of joy and laughter aside, she is looking for writers who take love, and the idea of love, seriously. 

In non-fiction, she is looking for subject experts, journalists and memoirists who appreciate long-form literature and can breathe life into an idea, an event, a memory. Her non-fiction wishlist includes captivating music writing such as On Michael Jackson by Margo Jefferson and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown; and ground-shifting journalism like Doppelganger by Naomi Klein and Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.