Wadzanai Mhute is a Zimbabwe-born author, journalist, and former Oprah Daily books editor who founded Antsu Literary Agency to bring diverse, globally rooted voices into the mainstream literary market across a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres.
In brief
Wadzanai Mhute is a genuine publishing insider: her background spans MFA-level craft training (Brooklyn College, Himan Brown Award), elite journalism (Columbia MSc.), and hands-on editorial work shaping Oprah's Book Club coverage — a rare trifecta that gives her both commercial instincts and deep literary credibility.
She founded Antsu Literary Agency herself, which means her list is still early-stage and actively growing — writers who query now are reaching an agent eager to build, not one who is already over-capacity.
No confirmed sales record is publicly available yet, so her list is defined entirely by her stated wishlist and editorial background rather than a pattern of closed deals — treat her as an acquisition-hungry new agent with unusually strong industry connections.
Her own debut novel centers on three generations of women in Zimbabwe, signaling that multigenerational, diaspora, and African-perspective narratives are likely to resonate deeply with her on a personal level.
She currently serves on the National Book Critics Circle Board, placing her at the center of literary conversation and award culture — a strong signal that she values writing with serious literary ambition, even within commercial genres.
Lately
A new-agent spotlight published in mid-2025 confirmed that Wadzanai was actively open to submissions across all listed genres and outlined her full submission requirements, including email-only queries with the manuscript material pasted directly into the body of the message.
What Wadzanai is looking for
Given her MFA background, her work at Oprah's Book Club, and her own novel-in-progress about Zimbabwean women across generations, literary fiction is almost certainly her deepest passion. Expect her to be drawn to work with strong prose craft, complex interiority, and cultural or historical weight — particularly stories rooted in underrepresented geographies or communities.
Actively sought alongside literary fiction. Her personal project and editorial history suggest an appetite for historical work that illuminates lives and cultures that mainstream publishing has overlooked, especially outside the Western canon.
Welcomed across the list. Work that engages with present-day social realities, identity, family, or diaspora experience is likely to align with her broader vision of championing diverse voices.
Both thriller and mystery appear explicitly on her list. Her journalism background gives her an affinity for propulsive, research-grounded narratives, and she may be especially drawn to entries in these genres that center protagonists or settings rarely seen in commercial suspense.
Actively seeking work in both genres. The breadth of her list suggests she is open to a range of approaches, from grounded speculative fiction to fully built secondary worlds, particularly where these genres serve as vehicles for exploring identity, culture, or social critique.
YA is listed across categories, though no sub-genre is specified. Given her overall focus on diverse voices, YA featuring underrepresented protagonists and settings is likely to land well.
As a journalist and former books editor, she is well-positioned to evaluate and sell narrative memoir. Writers with distinctive life experiences, especially those involving cultural displacement, identity, or resilience, are likely a strong fit.
Her journalism credentials — including an MSc. from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism — make narrative nonfiction a credible category for her. Work with deep reporting, a compelling central argument, and a strong authorial voice is likely what she is looking for.
Not the right fit
Taste fingerprint
How to query Wadzanai
Send everything in the body of the email — no attachments. Pasting your material directly is not optional; it is a stated requirement.
Your package must include: a query letter of one page maximum, a one-page synopsis (fiction), and either the first three chapters or the first 50 pages — whichever is shorter is not specified, so default to 50 pages unless your chapters run long.
Nonfiction writers should include their full book proposal in the body of the email rather than chapters.
Lead your query with what makes your book's cultural perspective or world-view distinctive — her founding mission is explicitly about stories from underrepresented corners of the world, so make that dimension of your work impossible to miss.
If your work is literary in ambition — even within a commercial genre like thriller or fantasy — say so plainly. Her MFA background and National Book Critics Circle service signal that serious craft is a baseline expectation.
Because she is actively building her list, personalization matters: reference her editorial background or her stated mission specifically rather than sending a generic pitch. A new agent notices a writer who has done their homework.
Confirm that submissions are still open and that the email address on the agency website is current before sending — new agencies update their processes frequently.