Maria Whelan
- Submission status
- Open
- Submission route
- Website
- Response time
- Aims to reply within 6 weeks
- Last checked
- 10 days ago
About
Maria is a literary agent at Mushens Entertainment, representing both fiction and nonfiction writers.
She joined the agency in September 2025 after eight years at InkWell Management in New York as an assistant and agent. She began her career as a Foreign Rights Assistant at Janklow & Nesbit in New York, and holds degrees from University College Dublin and the University of Edinburgh.
Genres
Looking for
- literary and upmarket fiction
- speculative fiction
- horror
- magical realism and reimaginings of myths, fairy tales, and folklore
- cultural criticism
- narrative nonfiction
- big-idea nonfiction
- select cookbooks and food writing
- select memoirs
- investigative journalism
- books about the environment and nature
- (pop) culture
- overlooked and revisionist history
- literary fiction, collections with elements of magical realism, or speculative (short story collections)
- literary fiction, elements of speculative, or contemporary fiction (novellas)
Not looking for
- young adult
- middle grade
- New Adult
- picture-books
- graphic novels
- military thrillers
- fantasy
- sci-fi
- crafts/DIY
- biographies
Agency submission guidelines
The agency is not open to picture books, middle-grade, children's fiction younger than teen, individual short stories, eroticas, poetry, screenplays, or comics/graphic novels. Only email submissions are accepted; postal submissions receive no reply. Submissions must be the original work of the author and will not be considered if originated, written or edited using artificial intelligence (AI), including query letters. Only Maria represents novellas and short story collections. For fiction submissions: the manuscript should be complete at the time of submission. Email submissions@mushens-entertainment.com with a clear subject line (eg. Fiction Submission: TITLE OF YOUR WORK), addressed to the specific agent, with a cover letter in the body of the email, a synopsis attached, and a PDF or Word document containing either the first three chapters, the first 10-15,000 words, or the first 50 pages. For non-fiction submissions: the book need not be complete, but a completed proposal and sample writing are required. If the manuscript is complete, the first section may be attached in lieu of a proposal. Email submissions@mushens-entertainment.com with a clear subject line (eg. Non-Fiction Submission: TITLE OF YOUR WORK), a cover letter in the body of the email addressed to the specific agent, and either a PDF or Word document proposal or the first 10-15,000 words of the completed manuscript. For short story collections: the manuscript should be complete at the time of submission and only Maria accepts these. Email submissions@mushens-entertainment.com with a clear subject line (eg. Short Stories Submission: TITLE OF YOUR WORK), addressed to Maria, with a cover letter in the body of the email, a synopsis attached, and a PDF or Word document of 40,000 to 75,000 words in total, primarily literary fiction, magical realism, or speculative, comprising previously published and/or unpublished stories (the collection as a whole must not have been previously published). For novellas: the manuscript should be complete at the time of submission and only Maria accepts these. Email submissions@mushens-entertainment.com with a clear subject line (eg. Novella Submission: TITLE OF YOUR WORK), addressed to Maria, with a cover letter in the body of the email and a synopsis attached. Genre should be primarily literary fiction, with elements of speculative or contemporary fiction, length between 17,000 and 40,000 words, and the manuscript must be unpublished in book form and original work. Juliet Mushens: adult fiction across genres, including reading group, love story, science fiction and fantasy, high concept hooks, page-turning plots, cults, stylish crime fiction, love stories, books about rich people being awful, subversive fantasy, funny and voice-y novels. Rachel Neely: crime, thrillers (literary and commercial), fantasy, dystopian, literary speculative, dark academia, horror, high-concept book club fiction. Maria Whelan: literary and upmarket fiction, speculative fiction, horror, magical realism, reimaginings of myths, fairy tales, and folklore, cultural criticism, narrative nonfiction, big-idea nonfiction, and select cookbooks and food writing.
Links
Clients include
- Audrey Burges
- Andrei Codrescu
- Vanessa Cuti
- Amy DeBellis
- Emma Deshpande
- Luke Dumas
- Maggie Ginsberg
- Cary Gitter
- Inbali Iserles
- Katrina Kittle
- Jeff Koehler
- Yvonne Liu
- Anne McCarthy
- Alice Martin
- Anna Mebel
Other agents at Mushens Entertainment
Juliet Mushens
Juliet is a literary agent at Mushens Entertainment, representing adult fiction across the genres. She became an agent in 2011 after starting her career at HarperCollins Publishers in 2008. More than a dozen of her clients are Sunday Times bestsellers, including Jessie Burton, Richard Osman, Saara El-Arifi and Claire Douglas. She sits on the advisory board of Book Brunch, is President of the British Fantasy Society and sits on the board of the Women's Prize Trust.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Crime · Fantasy · Historical Fiction · Romance +3 more
OpenLast checked 4 days ago
Rachel Neely
Rachel is a Literary Agent at Mushens Entertainment. She began her publishing career at HarperCollins before moving to Hachette, where she worked as an editor for six years, most recently as a Commissioning Editor at Orion. Her editorial background informs her collaborative approach to agenting, and she enjoys helping authors craft the best version of their story. She is focused on building fulfilling, long-term careers for her clients.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Crime · Fantasy · Horror · Romance +1 more
OpenLast checked 10 days ago