Iwalani Kim, associate agent

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Iwalani is seeking adult upmarket and literary fiction and select nonfiction. In fiction, she loves coming-of-age narratives, family dramas, and stories that challenge systems of power. She is often drawn to a strong sense of voice and/or place, whether the storytelling is grounded in realism or engages with a speculative element. She gravitates toward lush prose, wry humor, irreverent characters, and a sense of yearning. Iwalani is also looking for narrative nonfiction such as memoir, cultural histories, and cultural criticism. She would love to work with writers that are engaging with history, design and architecture, sociology, and anthropology, especially from a leftist angle. Some of her favorite authors include Raven Leilani, Ling Ma, T Kira Madden, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Samanta Schweblin, and Asali Solomon, and she would love to consider any manuscripts in a similar vein. She is passionate about championing the work of underrepresented authors and would especially love to work with Pacific Islander writers.

Please note: Iwalani is not the right agent for children’s books (including YA) or hard genre fiction like sci-fi and fantasy. 

Iwalani joined Sanford J. Greenburger Associates in 2018 after interning at Ayesha Pande Literary, Don Congdon Associates, and Kweli Journal. She was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i and graduated from Vassar College with degrees in Political Science and German Studies. As the senior assistant and foreign rights liaison to agency president Heide Lange, Iwalani has the pleasure of working with Heide’s extraordinary clients.

Follow Iwalani on Twitter @IwalaniKim

To submit your work: Query Iwalani at ikim@sjga.com. Please put “Query: [your book’s title] by [your name]” in the subject line. Include a brief pitch letter and the first few chapters in the body of your email, and if Iwalani thinks your project might be a good fit for her list, she will be in touch within 4-6 weeks. Due to the volume of queries she receives, Iwalani is unable to personally respond to each submission.