Tali Shammas is a debut-building associate agent at Storm Literary Agency who hunts for lyrical, voice-driven commercial fiction—particularly high-concept adult fantasy and horror, YA psychological dark fiction, and MG adventure—with a strong editorial hand and a champion's instinct for underrepresented creators.
In brief
Tali is a brand-new agent (joined Storm in 2026) actively building her list from scratch, which means motivated response times and genuine openness to debut authors across multiple genres.
Her stated taste runs deep into fantasy and horror at all age levels, but she also formally welcomes thriller, mystery, romance, rom-com, women's fiction, and upmarket fiction in adult—making her one of the broader-mandate agents at the agency.
Her favourite-authors list (Leigh Bardugo, V.E. Schwab, Holly Black, Shelley Parker-Chan, Ava Reid, Rachel Gillig, Erin Morgenstern, Stephanie Garber, and others) skews heavily toward lush, atmospheric fantasy with moral complexity and distinctive prose—writers should calibrate their pitch voice accordingly.
She brings a genuine professional differentiator: years of corporate legal practice, meaning she is unusually well-equipped to negotiate contracts and advise clients on IP issues—a real practical benefit beyond editorial chemistry.
Her ultra-specific comps (named on her own page) are the clearest signal of what she wants right now: study those titles before writing your query letter.
Lately
Tali's own agency bio confirms she joined Storm in 2026 following several years of corporate legal practice and an earlier internship at another literary agency, underscoring that she is actively building a fresh client roster and is genuinely hungry for new projects.
What Tali is looking for
This is where her taste is most intense. She wants high-stakes plots that force characters into genuinely impossible moral decisions, distinctive magic systems, and stories drawing on underrepresented folk traditions or non-Western settings. Her favourite-authors list is saturated with fantasy voices—Bardugo, Schwab, Black, Schwab, Parker-Chan, Gillig, Morgenstern, Garber—signalling an appetite for both epic scope and literary prose. Genre blends are explicitly welcome.
She is actively seeking boundary-pushing queer horror and specifically calls out Andrew Joseph White as the aesthetic benchmark. She also wants eco-fiction with a dark, botanical-body-horror sensibility—think uncanny nature, cottage gore, and visceral body transformation. Weird-girl fiction with an unsettling edge also falls here.
She wants extremely high-concept thriller hooks—hooks so specific and original that the premise alone commands attention. She is not looking for a generic procedural; the concept must do heavy lifting. She also explicitly welcomes unhinged, morally-complex female protagonists in this space.
Romance and rom-com are on her formal list. Her taste in adjacent fiction—Carley Fortune and Lily King appear in her favourites—suggests she gravitates toward emotionally intelligent, well-crafted romantic fiction with a literary undertone rather than pure category genre.
She welcomes upmarket and book-club fiction, especially projects with a strong commercial hook and literary writing. She is also drawn to 'books about books' across genres, which is a useful niche signal for writers with bibliophile or literary-world settings.
Listed on her current agency page as an active interest. No ultra-specific asks elaborated yet, but her broader taste for distinctive speculative worldbuilding and non-Western settings applies.
She wants YA mysteries and thrillers that are compulsively page-turning, with or without a retelling angle. She is also especially eager for YA that authentically explores neurodivergence, sexuality, faith, and cultural identity—not as backdrop but as genuine narrative substance.
She wants YA psychological horror with the quality of a dark fairy tale—atmospheric, dread-soaked, and literary. C.G. Drews is her named touchstone, which signals a preference for prose with an almost mythic register rather than slasher-style horror.
She wants MG that is both commercially appealing and literarily crafted. She has a specific, stated preference for stories centering boys as main characters—an unusual and concrete niche signal worth noting. Action-adventure with genuine humour is also a priority, as is disability, neurodiverse, and chronic illness representation. Stories celebrating diverse cultures are explicitly welcomed.
Her nonfiction appetite is narrow but real. She wants memoir that is funny, raw, and honest—Jenny Lawson is her named benchmark—plus genuinely unusual niche topics and visually-driven coffee-table books. This is not a generalist nonfiction list; the hook must be distinct and the voice must be singular.
Not the right fit
Taste fingerprint
How to query Tali
Use her online submission form exclusively—email queries are deleted without being read, no exceptions.
Do not query any other Storm Literary Agency agent simultaneously; the agency enforces a one-agent-at-a-time policy.
Lead with your commercial hook in the first sentence. She explicitly values hooks that are high-concept and immediately arresting—your query letter opener should prove the premise, not describe it.
Name a specific comp from her wishlist if your book genuinely resembles one. She has named titles at every age level; a precise, earned comp demonstrates you have done your research and signals fit.
If your work features BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodiverse, or chronically ill creators or protagonists, say so clearly and early—she has made this a stated cross-genre priority.
For MG submissions featuring a boy protagonist: make that explicit in the query. It is a specific, named preference and will distinguish your project.
If your adult thriller does not have an extremely high-concept hook, consider whether it is the right fit—she is selective in this category about premise originality.
Match your prose sample to her taste: her favourite authors run toward lush, atmospheric, lyrical writing. A flat or purely utilitarian opening page is a mismatch for her sensibility.
Because she is a new agent building her list, her response times may be faster than average and her investment in editorial development of debut projects is likely high—both are worth noting in your decision to query.
Check the live submission form for any updated category restrictions or special instructions before querying, as she joined the agency recently and guidelines may evolve quickly.