Mina Hamedi grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and is of Turkish/Iranian descent. She received a B.A. from NYU’s Gallatin School and an M.F.A. in Nonfiction from Columbia University's School of the Arts.

Mina began her career in publishing at David Black Literary Agency, working with Gary Morris and Heather Jackson and then moving on to Writers House. She joined Janklow & Nesbit in 2018, where she supports co-founder Lynn Nesbit and her various authors including Andre Aciman, Robert Caro, Jeffrey Eugenides, Ronan Farrow, Andrew Sean Greer, Anand Giridharadas, Pico Iyer, and Maaza Mengiste, as well as the estates of Joan Didion, Shirley Hazzard, Charles Portis, Anne Rice, and Tom Wolfe.

Mina represents adult literary fiction and nonfiction. She is interested in stories from around the world—particularly her native Turkey and Iran. She loves fiction with Gothic-inspired atmospheres, intergenerational tales, family secrets, and deep excavations into relationships, motivations, and obsessions. Fiction with genre elements (speculative, horror, mystery) are a plus, but she does not represent fantasy or sci-fi. She is drawn to nonfiction with big ideas, a fiercely personal bent and a strong voice; writers who are working not only to uncover the undercurrents of our world but also to change them. She seeks voices in translation and writers from underrepresented backgrounds.

She has been invited to speak on various panels and at conferences over the years including the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, the NYU Publishing Institute, Tin House, Loft Literary, AWP, and Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.

As a writer herself, Mina understands the complex and vulnerable process of writing and publishing one’s work. Her clients are journalists, activists, artists, attorneys, sex workers, booksellers, forest restoration advocates, and HIV pharmacists, and it is her aim to support the entirety of their careers. Some of her clients include Ruth Madievsky, Sarah-Jane Collins, Mona Eltahawy, Myriam Gurba, Alana Saab, Tree Abraham, Jordan LaHaye Fontenot, Naomi Falk, and Allan Martin Nava Sosa. Mina is also the founder of NAUSIKÂE, an art magazine and collective based in New York City. Her writing has appeared in Joyland, Catapult, Black Warrior Review, Off Assignment, BOMB Magazine, and elsewhere.

She lives in New York with her two Turkish street cats, Saffron and Lemon. She is a member of the American Association of Literary Agents (AALA) and the co-chair of the Governance Committee. You can query her at mhamedi [at] janklow [dot] com.

MSWL: https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/mina-hamedi/