I’m just your average literary agent, who gets incredibly enthusiastic at the prospect of championing powerful and critical work. Maybe you’re writing from the margins, or from a perspective we don’t often see in the market. Maybe you have a critical or cultural proposal just ready to take the world by storm. Or, maybe, you’re writing in genre, your work is propulsive, and it’s tethered by a tangible, grounded perspective. You might have your sight on launching a literary career and building a name for yourself, or you might be aspiring to turn your beloved hobby into something more. Whatever your vision, my aspiration is to help support you.

My Manuscript Wishlist

Noelle is looking for projects that uplight essential voices from the margins and teaches us how to better be human. She is eager to work with and prioritize authors of marginalized identities, and is particularly drawn to stories from Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander and Oceanic, and Indigenous perspectives. This said, she welcomes all stories with compelling writing that explores the mythic and the mundane, the sacred and profane, and the strange and fabulous beside the everyday. She likes to see characters evolve and change, teaching us further about ourselves and the resilience of the human condition.

For fiction, she’s looking for literary, upmarket, and (especially) speculative fiction, including magical realism, fantasy, and science fiction. Any genre bending and blending forms and experimentation is well received – she likes risk-taking. Of note, she is particularly keen on: reimagined folklore and mythology; dark, sad girl narratives; folks in the margins of their own communities; immigrant mothers and their daughters; coming-of-age stories and sisterhood; the softness of siblinghood; atmospheric, existential campus novels from bipoc perspectives; the unique intricacies and messiness of romance; monstrous women (why are they monsters?); and anything brimming with ancestral ghosts. She likes speculative work with surreal elements that flirt with the absurd. Last, any narrative in which the ocean holds weight will have an automatic layer of charm.
Ongoing favorites include: Han Kang, Marlon James, Samantha Hunt, Carmen Maria Machado, Mona Awad, and Sayaka Murata
For nonfiction, she’s looking for projects that explore the intersections of the personal, the political, and the cultural. She is specifically looking for narratives from the margins or from emerging artists, cultural practitioners, and academics that know their niche deeply. She would love to see strong essay collections, narrative nonfiction, archival works, and experimental blendings exploring (or connecting) culture, the diaspora, decolonization, systemic inequalities, land relationships, climate change, and our striving toward wellness.
Ongoing favorites include: Cathy Park Hong, Claudia Rankine, Mohsin Hamid, Alexander Chee, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and Anthony Christian Ocampo
For 2026, in Fiction, she is prioritizing literary, speculative, upmarket, and commercial narratives in the adult category. In Nonfiction, she is prioritizing cultural and narrative nonfiction. Across both categories, she maintains her perennial ask for experimental, form breaking and blending prose.
Some Key Themes I’m Looking (Across Fiction and Nonfiction) for in 2025:
- Climate Futurism
- Island Narratives
- Dark Side of Beauty & Wellness Industries
- Motherhood
- Literary/Upmarket RomCom
- Literary/Upmarket Narratives centered on Dance or Athletics
- Dark Comedy on Influencer Culture and/or Millennial Life
- Cozy + Anything! – Mystery, Fantasy, Grounded, Food
She is not the right agent for hard sci-fi, high fantasy, westerns, or law enforcement/military/intelligence or agent narratives. She is also not the right agent for prescriptive nonfiction or religious nonfiction.