Nicola Chang
Nicola Chang represents writers of fiction and non-fiction as well as a small list of poets. She is primarily looking to take on one or two fiction writers this year, although she is always happy to be bowled over by a brilliant and original non-fiction idea or a startling collection of poetry.
If you would like to submit your work to her, please email nicolasubmissions@davidhigham.co.uk with a covering letter in the body of your email and sample material attached separately (the first three chapters of a novel, a non-fiction book proposal, or a selection of poems). Unfortunately, Nicola isn’t able to respond to every single submission she receives. If you haven’t heard back within 16 weeks please assume that you haven’t been successful this time.
Nicola is interested fiction with an original voice, astute characterisation and a command of style and form as well as story. She is looking for potential prize-winners and bestsellers, of course, and for stories that resonate with our contemporary moment, but that will also endure beyond it. In non-fiction she is looking for beautiful, sharp writing and thinking which expresses a keen intellectual curiosity; wit and a lightness of touch never hurt. She prides herself on her passionate and professional representation of her authors’ interests and her bespoke author care. She often works with her authors on developing their ideas and manuscripts and is always thinking strategically about their careers.
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Nicola’s authors have won or been nominated for, among others, the BBC National Short Story Award, Booker Prize, Costa Book Awards, Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award, Dylan Thomas Prize, Edge Hill Prize, Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize, Forward Prizes, Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize (now called 4thWrite), Jhalak Prize, Goldsmiths Prize, Orwell Prize, Rathbones Folio Prize, Sunday Times Short Story Award, Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Ted Hughes Award, TS Eliot Prize, Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, White Review Poet’s Prize, White Review Short Story Prize and Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Recent deals include Raymond Antrobus’ ground-breaking memoir and story of deafness sold to W&N in a nine-publisher auction, Emma-Lee Moss’s Hong Kong memoir to Cape in an eight-publisher auction, Malachi McIntosh’s seminal group literary biography to Faber and Vanessa Chan’s debut novel to Hodder in a seven-publisher auction. Two of her authors, Anna Metcalfe and Saba Sams, were recently selected as Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists 2023.
Please send any enquiries about or for her authors to Sophia Rahim at sophiarahim@davidhigham.co.uk.
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Nicola joined David Higham Associates in 2020. She is a recipient of the London Book Fair’s Trailblazer Award, a Bookseller Rising Star and the Jerusalem Fellowship. She was previously an agent at The Good Literary Agency and Aitken Alexander Associates. She studied at Cambridge and Birkbeck and worked as a bookseller in an independent bookshop in London.
(Photo © Flora Maclean)
A selection of recent publications:
