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, Mara earned a bachelor's degree at Georgetown University and 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. She is actively seeking to represent authors from communities traditionally underrepresented in publishing, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and disabled and/or chronically ill writers. 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.
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 rip your heart out and make you forget the world around you.
I’m open to most fiction manuscripts and nonfiction proposals and love to be surprised! But if you have it, please send me:
FICTION
Fantasy (including political and romantasy)
Romance
Thrillers/mysteries (including political)
Horror
Women’s fiction
Upmarket + book club/commercial fiction
NONFICTION
Mental health care, substance use disorder treatment (this interest is specific to nonfiction) (please no pure memoirs)
The American health care system (please no pure memoirs)
Academic research for a commercial audience
Academic research for an academic audience
Making business better
Sports (literally anything in sports)
Gender + sexuality, focused on queer identities
The role of women in _________
Race + ethnicity
Psychology, neuroscience, and the human brain
Parasocial relationships
Multilevel marketing
Cults, schemes, and Fyre Festival-style scams
Politics, policy, and the future of government
Climate change
Science in modern life
Please don’t send me:
Memoirs—While I’m excited to read books by chronically ill and disabled writers, I am not a good fit for memoirs. Your story is extremely important, but I’m not going to be the right advocate for your work.
Historical fiction set in Europe during WW2
Books about the Holocaust
Main characters who are droids/androids
Fantasy world competitions
Stories about AI
Middle grade, chapter books, or picture books (I will represent existing clients, but not new clients, in these spaces)
Novellas and short story collections (I will represent existing clients, but not new clients, for these works)
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
Prescriptive books about Christianity
Astrology
Magic and witchcraft how-tos
In all categories, I’d love to see the following hyper-specific and not-so-specific things:
Books that are Jewish without being about Judaism. Give me Jewish main characters, Jewish families, Jewish traditions, and Jewish…easter eggs, if you will.
Unique takes on classic tropes.
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 and use of tropes.
Fantasy political stories that are super 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, and anything that comps to season 1 of 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
Horror that captures the vibe of season 1 of What Happened in Skinner in book form (yes, I know it’s on here twice; it’s good!)
Tropes and themes I can’t get enough of:
Women’s Wrongs/Good For Her™
Well-written love triangles.
Love triangles that end with one love interest’s death aren’t a good fit for me—make your characters choose!
OR: I am open to love triangles that end in polyamory.
Relationships that skirt the line between platonic and romantic.
Hate-to-love.
I Can Make Them Worse / I’ll Be Worse Than Them
Tropes, themes, and other settings/characters/premises I don’t love:
The Status Quo Was Right All Along
Competitions, trials, and games as plot devices in fantasy settings
Pregnancy/secret baby as a romance plot device
Billionaire love interests
Bully romance
Fated mates (without a unique twist)
Androids / AI
The Holocaust
I’m really picky about pirates. Will Turner was my first love and it’s sort of ruined the whole thing.
Stories centering a culture/experience that doesn’t belong to the author (i.e. a White author writing a US slavery narrative)
Multiple personality disorder as a plot device, unless the author has MPD