Nicola Barr

Description

I have over the years represented many bestselling commercial fiction authors, Richard & Judy bestsellers, and award-winning crime fiction and commercial women’s fiction. I am still very much on the lookout for upmarket commercial well-written fiction in these areas, particularly if they speak to a social issue, shine a light on a true-life injustice, have an atypical hero or heroine. I adore literary fiction, whether experimental or traditional, and will certainly not turn away a novel for seeming lack of… anything happening.

But, whether you are writing commercial fiction or literary fiction, I am endlessly fascinated by dysfunctional or unusual families, oddballs, women struggling and women achieving, the disenfranchised, outsiders. I embrace fiction that explores the darker side of life, but do respond well to points of view that don’t take the world too seriously.

In YA, I’m most passionate about grounded contemporary.

I’m a committed Londoner, but was born and raised in Northern Ireland, then studied at the University of Glasgow. I am actively looking to build on the brilliant Irish, Northern Irish and Scottish writers I already have. I do have a natural tendency to be drawn to working-class voices and regional stories. I also love nothing more than getting stuck in editorially on a story if I see brilliance there.

Like many in these odd times, I find myself increasingly drawn to non-fiction that allows for a collective vent. In the past year or so I have represented books on housing, Europe, feminism, millennials, sexual harassment. I love illustrators, cartoonists. I love sport and comedy and I might even show an interest in your food blog. As long as it doesn’t mention cupcakes.