THAIS AFONSO
ASSOCIATE AGENT
Thais is an Associate Agent with Azantian Literary Agency. She has eight years of experience in publishing between Brazil, China, and the United States. More recently, she interned at Writers House, where she honed her skills while supporting the desks of Amy Berkower and Johanna Castillo, and she was mentored by Jennifer Azantian before stepping up to the Associate Agent role at ALA.
She intends to represent marginalized authors, and she’s especially seeking to uplift indigenous voices and voices from the Global South.
Fun Facts About Me
1. I've never lived in a city with fewer than 5 million inhabitants. Small town romances actually give me claustrophobia.
2. I hate being sweaty. I live in Rio de Janeiro. My sole hobby is the gym.
3. I herniated a disk at 26 while jogging.
Military SFF, Literary Fiction, and non-speculative Historical Fiction in any age category.
Cops (MCs in law-enforcement/intelligence work is usually an easy pass for me).
Positive spins on war, Monarchy, colonization, or genocide (in general, I usually shy away from main characters who are soldiers or warriors or Monarchs).
Zionist and imperialist propaganda.
Racist, queerphobic, Islamophobic, and anti-semitic tropes.
Mafia books.
Dark romance or romance with any sort of dubious consent.
Enemies to lovers where the enmity comes with major power imbalance and/or any form of systemic oppression, and relationships that involve indenture and debts that need to be repaid.
Books about Indigenous people if you're not a culturally connected member of those Indigenous communities. That specially applies to Indigenous Brazilians, as I’m proud to see my country shifting away from appropriated Indigenous stories being repacked as folklore and 'good savage' narratives that have only caused harm.
Dark Academia from Global South writers, and Black and Indigenous writers in the Global North.
A high-drama, high-stakes romance that feels like a K-Drama. Think Crash Landing on Love or Tastefully Yours.
A queer rival-to-lovers sports romance.
Anything with a complicated, decades-long (or even centuries long if Fantasy/Paranormal) lesbian situationship at the core of the story. I specially welcome Siuan/Moiraine fanfiction at this difficult time.
I prefer my spice on the kinkier side, and I would really love to find a romantasy with consensual, sex-positive, queer-friendly (gender essentialist language is a big no for me) BDSM. Authors with deep knowledge of kink beyond D/s and light dirty talking will definitively have me picking up that manuscript so fast.
I would especially love to find a sapphic romantasy on the fun, smutty side. Something with an indie flavor. Think Sierra Simone’s The Fae Queen’s Captive.
I’m still looking for a BIPOC vampire horror with social commentary. Anything in the vein of The Wicked and The Willing or Sinners. I’d love vampires from BIPOC authors in general, actually. Even if it’s not social horror, send it to me.
In Thrillers, I’m still looking for anything that could described as BIPOC Dan Brown.
Body horror!
Please do not send Me:
Please Send Me:
WISHLIST
ADULT & YOUNG ADULT FICTION
In both Adult and Young Adult Fiction, Thais is looking to represent Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Contemporary Romance, Mysteries and Thrillers.
She’s particularly keen on growing her contemporary romance and thriller and horror list right now, so if you have a project that doesn’t have any of her triggers and hard ‘no’s, send it to her! She very much welcomes surprises here (as long as there are no elements from her anti-MSWL, especially a positive or extensive law enforcement presence in the story).
In Horror, she's still primarily looking for lesbians. But across the board, she loves the unsettling, the Gothic, all the folkloric horror, and all the social horror. She would especially love to find a horror-romance that hits the right balance of ‘we’re fighting the monsters and we’re kissing.’
She’s not looking for literary at this time, but focusing on commercial horror. She’s also seeking space horror: anything that could be comped to Alien: Romulus or Ghost Station, and anything underwater. I mean have you heard about the underground lakes in Antarctica???? Send her all the deep ocean stuff, the first contact horrors, the ‘weird mushrooms that are aliens’ stories!
Lastly, while she’s not big on gore, she is actively looking for gory body horror in the vein of The Substance.
In Mysteries and Thrillers, she’s looking for anything pacey, tense, and completely unrelated to law enforcement. She likes predictable but addictive, like Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets and Laura Dave’s The First Time I Saw Him. At the same time, she’s been enjoying unexpected and original concepts—Best Offer Wins, Harmless Women, Murder Bimbo. So, she’s looking both for basic premises done expertly and unique stories that break the mold.
She’s also still seeking lesbian-led thrillers, especially anything that could be pitched as Master of the House but lesbian. And she’s still hoping to find anything that could be pitched as BIPOC Dan Brown—meaning that same tight formula and breakneck pace, but with different themes and relationships between the characters and the injustices of our world.
She’s focused on commercial mysteries and thrillers at this time. She’s not a good fit for upmarket or literary, nor is she seeking psychological thrillers at this time.
In Contemporary Romance, she’s eager to sign queer authors—especially lesbians of color like her—though she is looking for all kinds of sapphic stories and stories by BIPOC authors in this genre.
She’s loving what K-dramas are doing with romance and high personal stakes. Recent faves include Crash Course in Romance, Tastefully Yours, and Forecasting Love and Weather. Speaking of weather, she’s loving the trend in contemporary romance, so if you can comp your book to B. K. Borison’s And Now Back to You or the upcoming In Stormy Weather by Chelsea Curto, she will probably go straight to the pages! She’s also a huge fan of forced proximity.
In sports romance, she’d still love a rivals-to-lovers, queer romance. Certainly, now someone will give it to her!!!!
Lastly, she’s looking for sex-positive, kink-positive contemporary romance, and would be especially excited to see that intersect with marginalized perspectives. Give a fluffy romance about a disabled or neurodivergent character experimenting with bondage! Or Black characters enjoying kink without it being traumatic. She wants happy, sexy stories that push beyond the vanilla.
Despite the focus on contemporary this year, Thais is also still looking for that in Romantasy. She’s still on the lookout for anything that could be described as Kushiel’s Dart for the Romantasy fans, but she’ll enthusiastically devour anything that explores how magic could intersect with pleasure.
She's also still selectively looking for cozy whimsical stories, like The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches or the Emily Wilde series, and would love anything that can be comped to The Spellshop or The Teller of Small Fortunes as well.
In YA, she's currently open to Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, and for the first time, Contemporary Mysteries and Thrillers.
She’s also super keen on growing her horror list in the category. If you can comp your manuscript to Justina Ireland, Krystal Sutherland, Jamison Shea, C.G. Andrews, Trang Thanh Tran, Andrew Joseph White, Courtney Gould, Tiffany D. Jackson, Vincent Tirado, or Kalynn Baron, she’d love to see it.
In SFF, she’s always on the look-out for Global South authors, especially when it comes to stories about oppression. In Sci-Fi, she’s looking for anything fun. Epic adventures in space, dark academia in space, anything that feels like anime. She still loves anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist themes here, but she’s not a great fit for heavy dystopia or post-apocalyptic stories in YA. However, she will take a Dystopian YA romance that scratches her nostalgia itch. Think Delirium.
In Fantasy, she’s specially looking for crossover titles. Recent favorites include Alwyn Hamilton’s Notorious Virtues, S. F. Williamson’s A Language of Dragons, and Sasha Peyton Smith’s The Rose Bargain.
In Mystery and Thrillers, recent favorites include The Reappearance of Rachel Price, Courtney Summers I’m the Girl, and Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s Where Sleeping Girls Lie.
Across all genres, Thais is especially interested in intersectionality. She wants to sign working class, Queer, BIPOC, disabled authors, and she’s keen on supporting authors whose marginalization intersect with other marginalizations, as she knows the paths to success in this industry get more limited if you have an intersectional identity.
She's very keen on indigenous stories across age categories and in all genres—To Shape a Dragon's Breath, Elatsoe, and Firekeeper's Daughter are all favorites, but she knows comps can be limited for Indigenous stories, so send her stories that don’t fit with these comps or any comps!
Thais especially wants to represent Global South authors. As someone born, raised, and based in Brazil, Thais seeks to put Global South stories front and center, as she believes those voices are more needed than ever.
She's also, in both age categories and across these genres, committed to supporting Palestinian authors, whenever they are ready and able to share their stories.
Anti-MSWL
Thais is not the best fit for Picture Books and Middle Grade. She's not seeking to represent Military SFF, Literary Fiction, and non-speculative Historical Fiction in any age category (Historical Fantasy is ok, but alternative history without magic isn’t really for her). In all genres, she's not a good fit for any sort of positive spin on war, Monarchy, colonization, or genocide. She will not represent books with Zionist and imperialist propaganda, copaganda, or racist, queerphobic, Islamophobic, and anti-semitic tropes.
In Romance, she's specially not a fit for enemies-to-lovers where the enmity comes with major power imbalance and/or any form of systemic oppression, and relationships that involve indenture and debts that need to be repaid. She's also a terrible fit for dark romance (she's okay with toxic relationships outside of romance, though). She'll not represent romance with heroes that are in the military, the mafia, or law enforcement.
Please don't send her books about Indigenous people if you're not a culturally connected member of those Indigenous communities. While Thais respects anyone’s desire to connect to their heritage, she's proud to see her country shifting away from appropriated Indigenous stories being repacked as folklore and 'good savage' narratives that have only caused harm, and she doesn’t want to add to a canon of stories about Indigenous people that are not by Indigenous people.
In fact, she’s not a good fit for any stories that are about specific oppressions faced by people from the Global South, but written by white authors for white readers.
