Noelle Falcis Math is a Toronto-based associate agent at Transatlantic Literary Agency who specializes in literary, upmarket, and speculative fiction alongside culturally-rooted nonfiction, with a strong and explicit priority for voices from Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, Oceanic, and Indigenous communities.
In brief
Her wishlist is unusually specific and philosophically coherent: she is looking for work that interrogates what it means to be human through the lens of the marginalized, the mythic, and the ancestral — not just 'diverse books' as a checkbox.
Her stated favorites (Han Kang, Carmen Maria Machado, Mona Awad, Marlon James) point to a consistent taste for prose that is formally ambitious, tonally dark or uncanny, and emotionally unsparing — writers who do not soften their material.
Because she is an associate agent at a well-established agency (Transatlantic Literary Agency), she is actively building her list — meaning she likely has more bandwidth and appetite for debut authors than a senior agent would.
The recurring motifs across her wishlist — monstrous women, ancestral ghosts, immigrant mothers and daughters, the weight of the ocean — suggest she responds most strongly to work where a metaphysical or mythological layer is inseparable from the emotional core, not decorative.
Nonfiction is a genuine priority, not an afterthought: she calls out essay collections, archival works, and experimental blends addressing diaspora, decolonization, and land relationships, signaling a market gap she is actively trying to fill.
Lately
Her public wishlist describes a deep commitment to uplifting voices from the margins — particularly Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, Oceanic, and Indigenous authors — and frames this not as a niche interest but as the organizing principle of her list-building.
What Noelle is looking for
This is her clearest priority. She wants fiction where speculative, fantastical, or science-fictional elements are in genuine conversation with emotional and cultural stakes — not genre for genre's sake. Magical realism, folklore reimaginings, mythology retellings, and surrealist work with absurdist edges all land here. She is especially drawn to stories where the supernatural is inseparable from identity: ancestral ghosts that carry real weight, monstrous women whose monstrousness is interrogated rather than accepted, and myth used as a lens onto contemporary marginalization. Formally experimental or genre-bending work is actively welcomed — she frames risk-taking as a positive.
She seeks literary and upmarket fiction that explores the full, messy texture of human experience — particularly for characters living on the margins of their own communities. Recurring thematic interests include: the dynamics between immigrant mothers and their daughters; coming-of-age narratives and female solidarity; the quieter intimacy of sibling relationships; dark or melancholy interiority ('sad girl' narratives); and campus novels with an existential atmosphere told from BIPOC perspectives. The ocean appearing as a meaningful force in a narrative is noted as an instant point of attraction.
This is not simply a thematic interest but an explicit representational priority she has named as central to how she builds her list. She is actively seeking authors from these communities across fiction and nonfiction alike. Stories rooted in these cultural and geographic contexts — especially those engaging with diaspora, land relationships, ancestry, and the tension between heritage and modernity — are at the top of her acquisition radar.
She is specifically looking for nonfiction where personal experience, political analysis, and cultural commentary are woven together rather than kept separate. Strong essay collections are a named desire. She also wants narrative nonfiction, archival projects, and hybrid or experimental forms. Subject areas she has called out: diaspora and the immigrant experience, decolonization, systemic inequality, relationships to land, climate change, and paths toward collective wellness. She favors writers who are deep practitioners — cultural workers, academics, or artists who genuinely know their niche — rather than generalist voices.
She notes an interest in 'the unique intricacies and messiness of romance,' but this reads as a thematic thread she wants woven into literary or upmarket fiction rather than a standalone genre romance submission. Query romance only if it sits firmly within literary or speculative territory and has the tonal weight her other preferences suggest.
Not the right fit
Taste fingerprint
How to query Noelle
Send a query letter, author bio, and a 25-page sample for fiction, or a full proposal for nonfiction — this is what she specifically asks for, so do not deviate from it.
Open your query letter by naming the cultural community or perspective your book centers — she has made representational identity an explicit priority, and burying it is a missed opportunity.
If your manuscript contains the ocean, ancestry, or folklore as structurally meaningful elements (not window dressing), say so explicitly and early. These are named attractor signals for her.
Name the formal risk your work takes. If you are blending genres, experimenting with structure, or writing across modes, frame it as a feature rather than hedging around it — she has stated that risk-taking is welcomed.
Match your comparable titles to her sensibility: reference authors in the literary-speculative or culturally-grounded nonfiction space, not commercial genre. Her named favorites (Han Kang, Carmen Maria Machado, Claudia Rankine, etc.) set the tonal register she expects to see comps within.
For nonfiction, establish your authority or proximity to the subject early — she favors writers who are practitioners, academics, or cultural insiders, not generalist observers.
Verify the live submission portal on her agency page before querying — as an associate agent actively building her list, her availability can change, and the April 2026 open status should be reconfirmed at time of submission.