Juliet Pickering

Juliet is now closed to submissions until the new year (2025).

Email: juliet@blakefriedmann.co.uk
X: @julietpickering
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth (finlay@blakefriedmann.co.uk)

About me

I am proud to represent a list of intriguing, clever, conversation-starting writers, across both fiction and non-fiction. Most of my authors write contemporary stories, often led by themes of love, identity, and coming-of-age; for me, vital qualities to a great story include emotional depth, authenticity, a warm, engaging voice and irrepressible energy. I want to be surprised, and to read everyday experiences and relationships told with nuance and colour. Our lives are rich and varied, and I like my books to reflect that too.

Favourite authors include Kate Atkinson, Claire Keegan, Curtis Sittenfeld, Elizabeth Strout, Shirley Jackson, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nora Ephron. I’m drawn to rich and multi-layered stories of women, families, friendships and relationships, and love small communities with lots going on beneath the surface; I prefer the small and intimate to the epic and world-affecting.

I want to bring under-published experiences to both editors and readers, and to broaden the books we’re publishing to include everyone. I’m a feminist and celebrate books that empower us, or that make us feel recognised and heard.

Alongside literary, book club and commercial fiction, I represent non-fiction writers including narrative writing on relationships, pop culture, social history and food, and a small number of cookery and other illustrated books. Please note that I am not currently considering memoir; I love memoir writing but unfortunately it’s a very difficult time to find space for new voices, and I’m working with enough memoir for now.

In case it’s helpful to know what I don’t represent, I do not work with the following genres: poetry, Young Adult or children’s, fantasy, supernatural, dystopian, sci-fi, thriller, horror or crime fiction, business, diet or health books.

I worked for Waterstones before joining the agency A P Watt in 2003. I moved to Blake Friedmann in 2013, becoming Vice Head of the Book Department and a Bookseller ‘Rising Star’ in 2017, and a Director in 2020. In 2021, I was delighted to win the Romantic Novelists’ Association Agent of the Year Award. I regularly visit literary festivals, courses and events, and enjoy giving talks and holding workshops for writers. I have been a judge for the Bristol Short Story Prize and Manchester Fiction Prize, and I’m on the board of the Working Class Writers’ Festival. 

Authors: Diane Abbott MP, Saskia Alais, Kasim Ali, Estate of Ted Allbeury, Graeme Armstrong, MiMi Aye, Trezza Azzopardi, Bolu Babalola, Dr. Tomas Bellamy, Jendella Benson, Meliz Berg, Ian Birch, Rachel Blackmore, Nora Anne Brown, Erin Bunting, Karen Campbell, Natasha Carthew, Fran Chang, Norie Clarke, Julia Cole, Sue Cook, Sara Crowe, Tuyen Do, Michael Donkor, Jo Facer, Emma Forsyth Haslett, Alix Fox, Sarah Franklin, Roxy Freeman, Janice Galloway, Gabriella Griffith, Sarah Hartley, Sir David Haslam, Kate Hodges, Michael Hogan, Kerry Hudson, Leah Hyslop, Dr Alexandra Jellicoe, Benjamin Johncock, Konditor, Kat Lister, Richard Littler, Clayton Littlewood, Anneliese Mackintosh, Ailbhe Malone, Lucy Mangan, Nina-Sophia Miralles, Emma Mitchell, Sue Moorcroft, Grace Mortimer, Nina Parker, Rosalind Powell, Julie Rea, Annie Robertson, Lora Stimson, Jack Urwin, Helen Walmsley-Johnson, Jemma Wayne, Women's Institute, Andrew Wong.