Anna Hogarty is a London-based literary agent at Madeleine Milburn with deep editorial roots in commercial publishing, hunting almost exclusively for narrative and prescriptive non-fiction that sits at the intersection of wellness, nature, and the examined life.
In brief
Her stated wishlist and her named favourites align tightly: she is drawn to introspective, beautifully written non-fiction about nature, the body, the mind, and the spirit — think Cheryl Strayed, Erling Kagge, and Peter Wohlleben rather than business self-help or pop psychology.
Her editorial background spans Corvus/Atlantic Books, Headline, and Hodder & Stoughton — she has genuine relationships across the mid-to-big London commercial trade, which matters for a non-fiction agent who sells on proposal.
She signals openly that a strong platform or a distinct, timely hook is non-negotiable for non-fiction submissions — credentials and market positioning must be addressed in the proposal itself.
Unlike many wellness-adjacent agents, she also flags a genuine appetite for darker emotional territory — grief, loneliness, heartbreak, silence — so literary memoirs that go to hard places are welcome here, not just aspirational lifestyle books.
Query status is unverified; confirm her current availability directly via the agency's submissions page before sending.
Lately
She describes herself as actively seeking new voices in wellness and yoga — particularly writers with a fresh approach to healing, mindful living, or Eastern traditions — and explicitly benchmarks the kind of memoir she wants against Cheryl Strayed's Wild.
What Anna is looking for
This is her clearest priority. She wants prescriptive or narrative books on mindfulness, meditation, sleep, calm, and emotional healing — especially work that brings a fresh voice or angle rather than retreading familiar ground. She teaches yoga herself and has studied the territory deeply, so she will spot derivative proposals immediately. The writing must be simple and precise, with what she calls 'glimmers of beauty.' Books that tackle difficult emotional terrain — grief, loneliness, heartbreak — are explicitly welcome alongside more aspirational titles.
She has a sustained personal passion for writing that places humans in the natural world — quests, wilderness journeys, and books that use landscape as a lens for self-understanding. She is also drawn to books about trees, animals, and the non-human world in its own right. The tone she responds to is literary rather than purely scientific, though a grounding in fact matters.
Literary memoirs about extraordinary lives, personal transformation, or journeys of self-discovery sit squarely in her wheelhouse. The benchmark she names is Cheryl Strayed's Wild: emotionally honest, physically grounded, and structurally propulsive. She is interested in voices from Eastern traditions and in stories that explore breaking away from ordinary life to find something truer. Author platform matters here, but a compelling and specific story can compensate.
Books about digital detoxing, creativity, sports, nourishment, and living more intentionally fit her list, particularly when the writing has genuine personality and the advice is grounded in lived experience. She wants empowerment and self-worth as genuine themes, not surface-level positivity. A strong, differentiated concept and clear market positioning are essential — she explicitly asks for comparable titles in proposals.
Her History degree and editorial background across commercial non-fiction imprints mean she is equipped to handle biography, history, and long-form journalism. She appears drawn to the human story within these forms — lives lived against large backdrops, told with narrative propulsion. Platform and credentials still matter; a clear 'why this author, why now' must anchor the proposal.
She states plainly that she is 'always drawn in by magic and ghosts' — an unusual flag for a non-fiction agent. This suggests an openness to books about folklore, the supernatural, or liminal experiences, provided the treatment is serious and literary rather than sensationalist. This is a niche interest rather than a priority lane; only query here with a strong concept.
Not the right fit
On Anna's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Anna
Send a covering letter, a full book proposal, and a 30-page writing sample in a single email with exactly two attachments — the agency is explicit that multiple emails or more than two attachments are not acceptable.
Your proposal must do four jobs: explain what the book is and why it needs to exist; map its place in the market with specific comparable titles; make the case for why you are the right person to write it (credentials, platform, expertise); and provide a chapter-by-chapter outline with a paragraph or two per chapter.
Your book does not need to be complete — non-fiction is regularly sold on proposal — but your proposal must be polished and detailed enough to stand alone as a selling document.
Lead with what makes your project genuinely different. Anna explicitly asks writers to articulate this; vague 'there is nothing like it' claims will not land. Name real comparable titles and explain the gap you fill.
If your project is in wellness, yoga, mindfulness, or Eastern traditions, demonstrate lived experience and specific expertise — she teaches yoga herself and will immediately recognise shallow treatment of the subject.
If you are writing memoir, the emotional honesty and the quality of the prose matter as much as the story itself. The Wild benchmark she cites is a high bar: the writing, the structure, and the interiority all need to work.
Platform is important for non-fiction submissions — she notes a 'strong profile in your field' as a factor. If your platform is modest, a very sharp and timely concept hook can partially compensate, but address it directly rather than hoping she won't notice.
Verify that she is currently open to queries before submitting — her status is unconfirmed and may have changed.