Ayesha Pande is the founder of a New York boutique agency that champions underrepresented, award-winning voices across literary fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and children's literature — and serves as steward of the James Baldwin Estate.
In brief
A former senior editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux with additional editorial stints at HarperCollins and Crown, Pande brings two decades of editorial instinct to her agenting — her client list skews literary, culturally urgent, and prize-adjacent.
The agency's roster spans novelists, historians, journalists, public intellectuals, and activists, signaling she thinks in terms of long careers, not one-off deals; repeat clients are a defining feature of her list.
Her stewardship of the James Baldwin Estate is the clearest public signal of her core aesthetic: serious, culturally significant literary work with lasting institutional weight.
Her stated categories are broad, but her agency's own page emphasizes fiction, nonfiction, children's, graphic novels, and poetry — poetry specifically appears on the agency site but is absent from most older directory listings, making it a meaningful addition for the right writer.
She is a member of AAR, PEN, the Asian American Writers' Workshop, and the Women's Media Group, and sits on the advisory board of the German Book Office — suggesting particular attentiveness to international and cross-cultural literary work.
Lately
Her agency's current website identifies five distinct genre verticals — fiction, nonfiction, children's, graphic novels, and poetry — with separate rosters for authors and illustrators, signaling a broader and more structured operation than the boutique label might suggest.
What Ayesha is looking for
This is the center of gravity of her list. She wants distinctive, original voices — work that engages seriously with identity, power, history, and imagination. Underrepresented perspectives are especially welcome. Think formally ambitious or culturally urgent novels rather than commercial genre fare.
YA is an active category for her, with a preference for voices and stories that reflect underrepresented communities. The same emphasis on originality and cultural specificity that defines her adult fiction list applies here.
She has a longstanding interest in women's fiction with literary ambitions — stories centered on women's lives, relationships, and inner worlds, written with depth and specificity.
History rendered through vivid individual experience; she is drawn to narratives that recover overlooked or underrepresented histories, particularly those connected to questions of race, culture, and justice.
Queer stories with literary weight and cultural specificity; her agency's awards track record includes Lambda Literary recognition, suggesting genuine depth in this space.
She is open to thrillers and broader commercial fiction when the voice is distinctive and the work carries cultural or political resonance. Pure genre exercises are less likely to be the right fit.
A major pillar of her list. She seeks scholars, public intellectuals, and journalists writing serious nonfiction: history, biography, economics, cultural commentary, and journalism with national or global stakes. The work should shape public conversation, not merely inform it.
Memoir is explicitly listed across all her current materials. She favors voices that bring underrepresented perspectives and stories that connect personal experience to larger cultural or political forces.
Graphic novels appear as a dedicated genre on her current agency site, covering both fiction and nonfiction formats. Given her broader editorial focus, literary and culturally engaged graphic narratives are the best fit.
Children's is a recognized category on her current agency roster, with both authors and illustrators listed separately. Underrepresented voices and culturally specific stories align best with her overall mission.
Poetry appears as a distinct category on her current agency website — notably absent from older directory listings — suggesting this is a newer or expanding area. The right project from a distinctive, culturally engaged poet may find a home here, but this is a selective area.
Not the right fit
On Ayesha's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Ayesha
Send your query to queries@pandeliterary.com — this address is confirmed on her materials; verify no changes on her live submissions page before sending.
Her agency's stated mission foregrounds cultural and political significance; your query letter should articulate not just what your book is about but why it matters and whose story it centers.
She responds strongly to underrepresented voices — if your background, subject matter, or perspective is underrepresented in mainstream publishing, say so clearly and early in your letter.
With a career rooted in literary editing at prestigious houses, she will read your prose carefully; lead with your strongest writing and ensure your sample pages are polished.
If you are a journalist, scholar, or public intellectual pitching nonfiction, frame your platform and the public conversation your book enters — she represents writers whose work is taught in universities and translated internationally, so think beyond the trade audience.
For children's books, note that she lists both authors and illustrators as separate client types; author-illustrators and standalone illustrators may query accordingly.
Do not pitch genre fiction without a clear literary or cultural angle — her list shows no evidence of pure genre acquisitions.
International literature and cross-cultural work are likely to resonate, given her advisory role with the German Book Office and her agency's emphasis on translation rights and foreign editions.