Jessica Craig
Craig Literary LLC
My Manuscript Wish List®
I love books of fiction or nonfiction that explore globally relevant themes, that transport the reader on a surprising journey across boundaries of culture, and sometimes even of genre; bold and ambitious storytelling that dismantles walls and builds bridges, challenging and deepening the reader’s understanding of self and other, of society, language, art, or humanity.
From 2012 – 2021 I was the first agent of Chigozie Obioma whose international literary career I launched and established with The Fishermen (2015), followed by An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), as he became published by major publishers and in more than 25 languages worldwide, and as he became, at age 33, one of the only writers ever to be a Booker Prize finalist for both first and second novels.
I also love a thriller or suspense novel that hooks me from the first page to the last.
I never thought I would be an agent of young adult or middle grade fiction until Jack Cheng delivered to me his manuscript, See You in the Cosmos Carl Sagan, with an 11-year-old narrator who grabbed my heart and also made me laugh, and that I quickly sold in the US and UK and to more than 20 foreign publishers. So now I am interested in diverse new voices for young readers (age 8+), that will entertain and enlighten adult readers too.
I currently represent more than 30 authors including: Sulaiman Addonia, Lola Akinmade Akerstrom, Jack Cheng, Mitch Cullin, and Zanib Mian. And my best-known projects as Craig Literary are:
In Every Mirror She’s Black by Lola Akinmade Akerstrom (Sourcebooks US, Head of Zeus UK, 2021)
See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng (Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin, Winner of 2018 SCBWI Golden Kite Award, translations in 23 languages)
Planet Omar middle-grade series by Zanib Mian (Hodder Children’s UK, Putnam Books for Young Readers/Penguin US, translations in 6 languages)
Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers by Lina AlHathloul and Uma Mishra-Newbery, picture book illustrated by Rebecca Green (Astra Books for Young Readers and minedition Germany, 2022)
Fun facts about me:
For most of my life I’ve lived in big cities, but I grew up on a farm in Connecticut and my first paid job was selling organic fruit and vegetables at a roadside farmstand. Now home is a farmhouse in Spain.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be emailed to submissions@craigliterary.com
If you’ve written something you think I will enjoy reading then contact me describing your work and your background in no more than one page. Please do not paste in a sample of your manuscript. If I am interested in your query I will respond to request a sample. I do not have time to respond to every query and will only respond to queries that interest me, but if you do not hear back from me within one week after your initial query then feel free to check in. If I have requested a sample of your work or your complete manuscript, then please give me at least six – eight weeks to respond.
Vital Info
Favorite sub-genres:
Diversity, Domestic Suspense, Feminism, LGBTQ+, Literary Middle Grade, Literary Noir, Magical Realism, Multicultural, Multiple POV, Narrative Nonfiction, Psychological Thrillers, Social Issues, Speculative Fiction, Suspense, migration
I’d like the next…
story that intrigues and immerses me from the first page until the last…
My favorites include…
Books: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, The Confessions of Max Tivoli and Less by Andrew Sean Greer, American Woman by Susan Choi, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom, A Most Remarkable Creature by Jonathan Meiburg, Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan C. Slaght, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw, Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, The Gift by Lewis Hyde, Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, Black Water Rising by Attica Locke, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Ducks Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann, The Pisces by Melissa Broder, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
TV: The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Succession, Chernobyl, Mare of Easttown, The Night Of, I May Destroy You, Master of None, The White Lotus, Dead to Me, Stranger Things, Wednesday
Film: Do The Right Thing, Witness, Badlands, Rififi, Parasite, Casablanca, Double Indemnity, Vertigo, Groundhog Day, Get Out
