Rach Crawford is a Wolf Literary Services agent and foreign rights manager who hunts literary and upmarket fiction with a genre edge—especially horror in all its forms—plus rigorous narrative nonfiction from journalists, with a particular emphasis on ANZ voices and LGBTQ+ writing across categories.
In brief
Crawford's submissions are CLOSED as of June 1, 2026—verify the live form before querying.
Horror is her loudest current ask: social horror, folk horror, feminist horror, domestic horror, and BIPOC horror are all explicitly welcomed, making her one of the more horror-forward agents at a literary agency.
Her client roster's award footprint—Walkley Awards, Stella Prize shortlists, Lambda Literary nominations, NYT Notable Books—signals real commercial and critical range, not a narrowly niche list.
She is both an agent and her agency's foreign rights manager, which means her authors benefit from an unusual in-house international selling channel.
Her wishlist specifically calls out South-East Asian and Pacific Island diaspora writers, First Nations writers, and ANZ writers broadly—a meaningful gap in most U.S.-focused lists that she is actively working to fill.
Lately
As of her current agency page (the authoritative source), Crawford's mandate centers on literary and upmarket fiction, narrative nonfiction, and horror—with a named priority on LGBTQ+ writing across all categories. This framing places LGBTQ+ voices as a cross-cutting interest rather than a sub-niche.
What Rach is looking for
This is Crawford's most emphatic current ask. She wants social horror that uses fear to illuminate a specific issue or idea, folk horror, feminist horror, domestic horror, BIPOC horror—and she is open to horror that intersects with religion, spirituality, or cults. If your horror is also funny, lyrical, or formally ambitious, even better. She is not looking for straightforward genre horror divorced from larger thematic ambition.
Crawford gravitates toward intimate, single-consciousness novels—what she calls 'burrowing deep into one captivating weirdo'—rather than sprawling ensemble casts or heavy worldbuilding. Thematic sweet spots include shame, desire, religion and belief, motherhood and its refusal, and female friendship. She is especially drawn to fiction that flirts with genre conventions without fully becoming genre, and to working-class characters. LGBTQ+ literary fiction is a named priority across her list.
Crawford wants speculative fiction that takes feminism and/or religious or spiritual belief as serious subject matter—how faith shapes daily life, how institutions warp individuals, how cults form and fracture. She is particularly interested in religious traditions outside the Judeo-Christian mainstream. This category overlaps heavily with her horror interests.
She is drawn to mystery and suspense that leads with a big, original premise rather than procedural convention. For ANZ writers specifically, she is also seeking stylishly written domestic suspense and voicey, female-driven millennial crime thrillers. The writing quality bar is the same as for her literary fiction.
Crawford describes herself as newly enthusiastic about sprawling intergenerational stories, especially where family saga intersects with other wishlist themes (religion, diaspora, the natural world). Separately, she is drawn to fiction in which nature, ecology, or landscape functions as more than backdrop—an animating presence in the narrative.
Crawford explicitly states a strong track record representing working journalists and invites them to reach out to discuss book ideas. The writing must be lyrical and the thinking rigorous. Topic areas include climate change, nature and ecology, geopolitics, migration, pop culture, technology, psychology, feminism, queer theory, and works that function as cultural anthropology. She also represents select expert-driven practical nonfiction, though that is a narrower lane.
Crawford is Australian, operates within Wolf Literary's primarily U.S.-focused list, and actively builds an ANZ roster alongside it. She is especially keen on First Nations literary and speculative fiction, South-East Asian and Pacific Island diaspora writing, literary fiction, domestic suspense, and high-concept crime from this region. ANZ writers should query with confidence.
Not the right fit
On Rach's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Rach
Address her as Rach, not Rachel—she has said so explicitly and it signals you have done your research.
Her form is currently closed (observed June 1, 2026). Do not attempt to query by email—she no longer accepts email queries. Check her live submission form before doing anything else.
For fiction, the form requires a query letter and the first twenty pages of the manuscript. For nonfiction, send a proposal instead of pages.
Lead your query with the thematic engine of your book, not just its plot. Crawford is drawn to ideas—what is the book really about? What does it illuminate about the world?
If your work sits at the intersection of two or more of her stated interests (e.g., feminist horror informed by non-Western religion, or a journalist-authored cultural anthropology book about migration), name that intersection explicitly. Her wishlist is designed to stack.
ANZ writers should name their region and, if relevant, their First Nations, Pacific Island, or Southeast Asian diaspora identity early in the query—she is actively building this part of her list.
Horror writers: do not undersell the horror. She has specifically invited writers to 'send her your horror.' Name your subgenre (folk, social, domestic, etc.) and clarify the thematic stakes the horror serves.
Journalists pitching nonfiction should mention their outlet credentials and any prior book coverage early—she has a stated track record with working journalists and this context matters.
Avoid pitching her a book as 'the next great romance' or as romantasy, even if it has romantic elements—she will accept a romance subplot but is explicitly not the right fit for romance as a primary genre.
Do not query children's books or YA under any circumstances.