Clare Mao

Clare Mao joined Sanford J. Greenburger Associates in 2024 after working at Janklow & Nesbit and Europa Content. She represents adult fiction and nonfiction. Clare grew up in Queens, New York, attended Grinnell College in Iowa, and now lives in Brooklyn.

In fiction, she is looking for novels with a strong sense of place and insightful character work. She represents fiction across the spectrum of literary to upmarket/book club to commercial with strong writing, with a soft spot for a good, elevated love story featuring diverse characters. She does not represent sci fi/fantasy, though she is interested in speculative fiction authors like Jeff Vandermeer or Victor D. Lavalle, or historical fiction. Recent favorite fiction include Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu, Moderation by Elaine Castillo, Luminous by Silvia Park, and Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan. If you’re working on anything that reads like these, get in touch!

In nonfiction, she is seeking cultural criticism, narrative, and essay collections, and is actively looking for writing about solidarity, food, pop culture, and new modes of creating community. She also represents illustrated projects like cookbooks, photo books, and tarot decks with strong concepts and compelling illustration/design. Recent favorite nonfiction include I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally, All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh, and Stay True by Hua Hsu.

Across genres, she is drawn to writers who are curious, thoughtful, and critical, who have expansive interests and concerns including and outside of writing, and who have a knack for blending genres and forms. Most importantly, she wants to represent writers who are having fun.

Clare’s clients include: Ifrah F. Ahmed, Tanya Bush, Heather Eng, Johanna Hedva, Sally Wen Mao, Emily Mester, Rioghnach Robinson, and others.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to cmao@sjga.com

You can query Clare at cm**@**ga.com under the subject line “QUERY – project title.” In the body of your email, please include your query letter and the first 3 chapters (fiction) or full proposal (nonfiction), and if she is interested in reading further, she will be in touch within 4-6 weeks. Due to the volume of queries she receives, Clare is unable to respond personally to each submission.

Guidelines & Details