About The Agency

We are an editorial-focused agency and prefer to work closely with our authors in helping to build strong, sustainable careers. We believe the best author-agent relationships extend beyond making sales; in order to best serve our clients’ needs, we must also be a partner, an advisor, a careful listener, a troubleshooter and an advocate.

We at Bradford Literary Agency stand against racism and systems of white supremacy that have committed centuries of violence upon Black people from state-sanctioned murder to unjust imprisonment. We recognize that publishing is just one of the industries that perpetuates prejudice and racial capitalism in insidious, silent ways. Our agents work tirelessly for their clients regardless of race, religion, gender, sexuality, or ability, but we also recognize that the publishing industry sets up additional barriers against Black people and Black representation which we are striving to dismantle.

While there may at first glance appear to be greater diversity in the books published in recent years, as the Lee & Low data and recent #PublishingPaidMe information highlight, there is still an enormous gap in the number of Black authors, illustrators, and Black-centered stories as well as in how Black creators are compensated and promoted. We have a lot of work to do to achieve equity for Black and IPOC authors, illustrators, and publishing employees across the field. But together, we hope to make a difference.

Doing so means we need to listen–and back up our words with actions. We commit ourselves to listening to and raising up Black voices, reflecting on our own blind spots and working to address them, donating to causes that build up Black communities, volunteering, protesting, and advocating for Black people. We will create and maintain a welcoming, safe, and nurturing space for Black people in publishing. This cannot be achieved in one day or one week or one month, but will be a continuing effort over time.

We are donating to the NAACP, Color of Change, We Need Diverse Books, and the ACLU in addition to our regular donations to the AAR Diversity Internship grants and Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Conference. We have plans in the works for a mentorship opportunity in the very near future for a member of the BIPOC community to help increase diversity amongst agents. We hope that you will stand with us as well.

We are currently acquiring:

Please read agent bios for specific interests.

We do not charge reading fees for evaluating your material.