Jacaranda is a boutique literary agency working out of Singapore, India, and the UK. We represent a diverse list of fiction and non-fiction from across Asia, and in particular a growing list of fiction from South East Asia. Our list includes authors from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Taiwan. We also represent many authors from further afield, including from the US, UK, Kenya, and Australia, making us a truly international agency. However, it is always the quality of the writing that drives us rather than geographical location.
Our fiction list is varied and eclectic, representing a mix of both established and debut authors. We specialise in literary fiction, good quality commercial fiction, women’s writing, crime and fantasy. In recent years we have built a small but growing list of translated fiction from across South East Asia, and we now also represent a small number of translators.
Our non-fiction list comprises narrative non-fiction, spanning memoir, travel writing, health & well-being, self-help and business. We love to take on unique books about unusual subjects that catch our imagination!
Jayapriya Vasudevan
Jayapriya Vasudevan has worked in publishing in one form or another over several decades, during which time she has ‘done it all’. Born in Calcutta, into a family of writers, she studied literature at college and went on to work for several publishers, learning the business first hand—from editing to sales and distribution. Spotting a gap in the market, she and a partner set up India’s first bookstore cafe in Bangalore. It was here that she began to organise literary salons, inviting up to fifteen authors at a time to speak. Bookseller magazine hailed her as “one of India’s most dynamic booksellers".
In 1997, Jayapriya founded Books@Jacaranda literary agency which celebrated its Twenty-fifth Anniversary in 2022. Under her leadership Jacaranda has continued to grow its diverse list of authors. Over the years Jayapriya has enjoyed several stints living overseas, first in Beijing and later in Singapore and Nairobi. Each new country gave her the opportunity to meet new authors and make new connections. She has now moved back to India where she lives in Bangalore.
Jayapriya has spoken at literary festivals all over Asia, from Istanbul and India to Manila and Singapore and further afield in London and Frankfurt. In 2017, Jayapriya was appointed the Festival Director of the Times of India Literary Festival, a role which she reprised in 2018.
Jayapriya’s list focuses on inclusion, community, gender and language.
Helen Mangham
Helen has been a Partner Agent at Jacaranda since 2013. She came to Jacaranda with over eight years of publishing experience, having started her career at Curtis Brown Literary Agency - one of London's oldest and most famous literary agencies. She has worked with the publicity departments of some of the UK’s leading publishing companies, helping to put together publicity campaigns for a number of high profile books including Michael Chabon’s ‘The Mysteries of Pittsburgh’, Andrew Morton’s controversial biography of Princess Diana, Whitley Streiber’s ‘Communion’ and the autobiography of Elton John’s lyricist Bernie Taupin. Other authors she has worked with include Deborah Moggach, John Julius Norwich and Chinua Achebe.
Having spent 26 years living overseas in cities as varied as Budapest, Warsaw, Taipei and Singapore Helen is now based in the UK where she lives by the sea in Sussex.
Helen’s list focuses on literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, memoir, health & wellness.
Smita Khanna
Smita has been in publishing for nearly fifteen years now. Having worked as a full-time editor with Rupa and Dorling Kindersley she has also worked on books for Random House and Jaico.
She began working with Jacaranda in 2017. Books, interactions with authors, and reading manuscripts remain her first love. For her, there is no bigger thrill than an acceptance email from a publishing house and no greater motivation than a well-written manuscript looking for a home. At Jacaranda, Smita has been working with award winning authors like Akshita Nanda, Laksmi Pamuntjak, and Shobha Tharoor. At Jacaranda, Smita has an eclectic list of authors that includes Viral Doshi, Madhukar Zende, Akshat Shrivastava, Shobha Tharoor, and Kopal Khanna.
Smita’s list focuses on commercial fiction and non-fiction.
Radhika Shah
Radhika has a BA from Barnard College of Columbia University and an MA from New York University in English Literature and History. She has previously worked with the Feminist Press, W. W. Norton & Company, and Restless Books. Radhika’s list includes literary and translated fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and is seeking well-written speculative and genre-bending fiction.
Aashray Rao
Aashray joined Jacaranda in 2023 as a reader. He has a BA in English from Wilson College Mumbai. He enjoys reading postcolonial fiction, political and moral philosophy, and literary criticism. He is seeking popular science or mathematics and philosophy books.
