Mina Hamedi
Janklow & Nesbit Associates
My Manuscript Wish List®
Mina Hamedi is an agent at Janklow & Nesbit Associates. She grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and is of Turkish/Iranian descent. She moved to New York in 2010, completing a B.A. in Creative Nonfiction and Identity from NYU’s Gallatin School and pursued an M.F.A. in Nonfiction at Columbia University School of the Arts. She worked at David Black Literary Agency and Writer’s House while finishing her graduate degree and freelance editing and translating. She started working at J&N with Lynn Nesbit in 2018.
Mina wants to help shape the careers writers from all over the world but especially Turkish and Iranian authors whose work she can bring to wider audiences. Her wishlist includes (but is not limited to):
- Narrative nonfiction about pop culture, essay collections, memoirs or hidden histories like TRICK MIRROR, MINOR FEELINGS, THE BOOK OF UNCONFORMITIES, FUN HOME, PRIESTDADDY, THE EMPATHY EXAMS, HEADSCARVES AND HYMENS
- Literary fiction/story collections with focus on friendships, sisterhood, family, traditions, mythology, and horror like GOODBYE VITAMIN, SEVERANCE, AFTERPARTIES, HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD, CIRCE, MEXICAN GOTHIC, A LITTLE LIFE, THE IDIOT
In general:
- Strong POC characters
- Distinct sense of place/setting (if outside the US, a plus)
- Experimental writing style
- Intergenerational, family stories
- Engagement in contemporary social issues
- Coming-of-age
- The uncanny, twisted, or unsettling
- The empathetic or hopeful
Fun facts about me:
- I have a cat named Saffron who was formerly a street cat in Istanbul, Turkey
- My best friend and I are co-founders of NAUSIKAE, an art magazine and collective based in New York City
- I write about my big, Turkish family often (you can find links to work on my website)
- I’ve seen the Northern Lights in Iceland, lemurs in Madagascar, rode on motorcycles with my father in South Africa and can’t wait to travel again soon
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be emailed to mhamedi@janklow.com
Please follow the submission guidelines listed on our website.
*Query letter + first ten pages!
Vital Info
I’d like the next…
My favorites include…
Books/Authors:
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, The Changeling by Victor LaValle, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi, What it Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah, Clarice Lispector, Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzberg,
Assembly by Natasha Brown, Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters, Indelicacy by Amina Cain, Down Below by Leonora Carrington, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds by Elif Shafak, Girlhood by Melissa Febos, Heavy by Kiese Laymon, H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald, The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr, The Vegetarian by Han Kang, Chemistry by Weike Wang, My 1980s and Other Essays by Wayne Koestenbaum, I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This by Nadjia Spiegelman, Catch & Kill by Ronan Farrow, Bluets by Maggie Nelson, Negroland by Margo Jefferson, Family of Origin by CJ Hauser, Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat, Out of Egypt by Andre Aciman, Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz
Films:
- Santa Sangre, Housed on Haunted Hill, Scream, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Thing, Stardust, Hush, Candyman, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Hereditary, Coraline, Lilo & Stitch, Casper, The Witches of Eastwick, Heathers, Mermaids, Moonstruck, Cabaret, Elvira, Death Becomes Her, Election, Alien, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Videodrome, Evil Dead, House, IT, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Impetigore, Hellraiser
TV Shows:
- The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, Succession, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Slasher, Over The Garden Wall, Supernatural, Pushing Daisies, Dead Like Me, Marianne, Sex Education, The X-Files, Twin Peaks, Santa Clarita Diet, The Simpsons, Big Mouth, I May Destroy You, Broad City, Veronica Mars, Hannibal, pen15, Frasier, Freaks & Geeks, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Creepshow
