MARA HOLLANDER
ASSOCIATE AGENT
Mara Hollander started her publishing career at FinePrint Literary Management and joined Azantian Literary Agency in 2025. Prior to working in publishing, she earned a PhD and Pitt Public Health and was a professor researching US health care policy. Mara believes stories make us who we are and that everyone deserves a chance to write their own. In her free time, she writes fantasy novels, watches a shocking amount of figure skating, roots for the Washington Nationals and Georgetown Hoyas, and daydreams about petting dogs.
Fun Facts About Me
1. I was voted “most likely to be president” by my high school graduating class.
2. I was a musician for most of my life! I played the piano, alto sax, and a few guitar chords (poorly), and I sang (also poorly).
3. I once got my college pep band called out on ESPN for being too enthusiastic during a postseason basketball game.
Historical fiction set in Europe during WW2
Books about the Holocaust and antisemitism
Main characters who are droids/androids, and stories about AI
Fantasy world competitions— competitions, trials, and games as plot devices in fantasy settings
Middle grade, chapter books, or picture books
Books that center around child sexual abuse
Stories centering a culture/experience that belong to a minoritized group the writer is not a part of (i.e. a White author writing a US slavery narrative)
Multiple personality disorder as a plot device, unless the author has MPD
Memoirs
Prescriptive books about Christianity
Astrology
Magic and witchcraft how-tos
Romance tropes: pregnancy/secret baby, bully romance, fated mates (without a unique twist)
I’m really picky about pirates. Will Turner was my first love and it’s sort of ruined the whole thing.
Fantasy (including political and romantasy)
Romance
Mysteries
Horror
Upmarket + book club/commercial fiction
Books that are Jewish without being about Judaism. Give me Jewish main characters, Jewish families, Jewish traditions, and Jewish…easter eggs, if you will.
Yearning. Between lovers, between estranged friends, between siblings, between parents and their children, for an experience. Pull at my heartstrings.
Fat characters who are known for something other than being fat.
Adult novels that feel YA in their pacing.
Political fantasy novels that are accessibly written.
Rebellions and revolutions. Give me anti-monarchy stories, give me anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism stories, give me stories about who has power and what that means.
Explorations of the line between religion, magic, and science.
Anything that comps to What Happened in Skinner.
Angry women characters. Angry nonbinary characters.
Accurate sports. If your pitchers can correctly describe the grip for a curveball, or your figure skaters know the difference between a lutz and a flutz, please send me your book.
Queer romance!
Horror about MLMs, like LuLaRoe or Young Living
Please do not send Me:
Please Send Me:
WISHLIST
Stories make us who we are, and everyone deserves a chance to write their own narrative. I’m actively seeking to represent authors from communities traditionally underrepresented in publishing, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and disabled and/or chronically ill writers.
In fiction, I’m seeking accessibly-written novels for Adult and YA audiences that transport you and make you forget the world around you. I love deep POV, a hook that makes my jaw drop, and a confident voice. If you can make me laugh, cry, and scream in the same novel, you’ll win me over.
I’m most excited about fantasy (including political, epic, and romantasy), romance, mystery, horror, and upmarket or book club/commercial fiction, especially if it has a speculative edge. I am also open to thrillers and sci-fi, although I am much pickier about these genres. At this time, I am not open to non-speculative historical or literary fiction.
While I love books that feel distinctly Jewish, I’m not a great fit for books about the Holocaust or that focus on real-world antisemitism. I don’t love detective/police POVs and/or procedurals.
Please do not send books centering a culture/experience that doesn’t belong to you (i.e. a White author writing a US slavery narrative). In particular, please do not send me books that use MPD or schizophrenia as a plot device unless you have MPD or schizophrenia. I’m also not interested in prescriptive books about Christianity, astrology, or magic and/or witchcraft. I do not represent memoirs.
In nonfiction, I’m looking for paradigm-shifting, platform-driven books that make readers reconsider what we think we know about the world, or that teach us something new through storytelling. If your book is a narrative, make it as un-put-down-able as BAD BLOOD by John Carreyou, or something I can’t stop listening to like Slate’s SLOW BURN or Dana Schwartz’s NOBLE BLOOD.
Because of my background in health care research, I’m particularly interested in finding books about US health care and navigating the health care system. If you have a book interrogating the culture of modern competitive figure skating, please send it to me immediately! I do not represent memoirs.
