 ABOUT THE AGENT: Thais Afonso (she/her) is an Associate Agent with Azantian Literary Agency. Thais 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 BIPOC born and raised in the Global South. An Afro-Brazlian lesbian, Thais currently lives and works out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She helps care for her grandmother when she’s not editing books and she’s one of those terrible people who calls the gym her hobby (even though she currently doesn’t go). THAIS IS SEEKING: In Adult Fiction, Thais is looking to represent Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Contemporary Romance, and Suspense/Thrillers. She still loves an element of speculative or the utter unsettling in this age category, and would love to find an unsettling story that defies genre, like Our Wives Under the Sea, Catherine House, Helen Phillips’ The Need or TV show Yellowjackets. She’s also seeking stories with a strong anti-colonial, anti-imperialist bent, be it an epic in the vein of The Ending Fire trilogy or space opera A Memory Called Empire, something more intimate like indie horror The Wicked and the Willing, or even a contemporary take—she’d love to sign a political thriller that explored the same themes as American Spy. In YA, she’s currently open to Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, and Supernatural Mysteries/Thrillers. She’s predominantly interested in anything with a speculative bent. She’s also especially keen on championing Queer voices in this space, especially BIPOC Queer voices. “(Thais) is very keen on indigenous stories across age categories and in all genres--To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, Elatsoe, and Firekeeper’s Daughter are recent favorites, but she wants stories that don’t match any comps too. Thais especially wants to represent Global South authors. As someone born and 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 all genres, committed to supporting Palestinian authors, whenever they are ready and able to share their stories—she’s always open to queries for Palestinian authors.” Please visit the agency’s website for an in-depth description of what Thais is seeking, as well as her Anti-MSWL. HOW TO SUBMIT: Please note: When we post a New Agent Spotlight, we try to make sure the agent is open to submissions at the time of posting. But as time goes by, an agent can close and open to submissions at any time. If some time has passed since this spotlight was posted, you will want to check their agency website and/or QueryManager before submitting, to be sure. As always, please review the agency’s submission guidelines before you submit. “I’m currently only open to unsolicited submissions from BIPOC authors. If you are not an author of color, please hold your submission until I’m open to all queries.” Thais accepts queries via QueryManager — you can find her page here.  Attend a Writers Conference in 2026:
 This post by Chuck Sambuchino, freelance editor and lead director of Writing Day Workshops. Chuck is a former longtime staffer with Writer's Digest, editing the Guide to Literary Agents. He is the author of the writing guides CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM and GET A LITERARY AGENT, as well as the bestselling humor book HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK. His most recent books are all about pickleball -- daily tear-off calendars as well as the picture book GOODNIGHT, PICKLEBALL. He is a proud #GirlDad, movie geek, and guitar/piano player. Connect with him through WDW's Instagram and Twitter,
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