Emma Paterson

I joined Aitken Alexander Associates in 2018 after five years at Rogers, Coleridge & White. Before that, I worked at The Wylie Agency. I was made a Director of Aitken Alexander and became a member of the Booker Prize Foundation Advisory Committee in 2020. In 2023, I was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. 

I represent fiction, non-fiction and poetry. My authors include Bernardine Evaristo, Claire Kilroy, Shon Faye, Natasha Brown, Mona Chalabi, Sam Knight, Emma Dabiri, Preti Taneja, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Mary Jean Chan, Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Chris Power, Olivia Sudjic, Elaine Castillo, Susan Barker, Susanna Moore, Megan Hunter, Sanam Mahloudji, Stephanie Bishop, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Ash Sarkar, Helen Charman, and Angelica Ferrara. 

In fiction, I admire story-led and character-driven writing powered by ideas and wrestling with history; high-stakes novels that make us feel deeply, think critically, and contend with complex moral and social questions. I’m drawn to a compelling story arc, clever plotting, and rich, careful worldbuilding, whether realist or speculative, contemporary or historical. My favourite novels include Underworld by Don DeLillo, Under the Skin by Michel Faber, The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, The Quiet American by Graham Greene, Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett, The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, Writers & Lovers by Lily King, Passing by Nella Larsen, The Human Stain by Philip Roth, Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift, and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. More recently I’ve loved Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst, All Fours by Miranda July, and Trespasses by Louise Kennedy.

In non-fiction, I represent academics, journalists and critics, and my taste is broad: I am interested in history, politics, philosophy, psychology, true crime, narrative sports writing, and literary biography, and I’m keen to discover experts and gifted storytellers writing in these areas. Books I admire include The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, Red Comet by Heather Clark, Question 7 by Richard Flanagan, The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, The Return by Hisham Matar, Levels of the Game by John McPhee, Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison, and Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan. 

In 2019, I was responsible for bringing Susanna Moore’s beloved novel In the Cut back into print in the UK for the first time in 17 years. You can read more about my interests here. 

Currently, I am unable to offer representation to poets who have not yet published a first collection.

I am assisted by Matilda Southern-Wilkins: Matilda@aitkenalexander.co.uk, but if you have a speaking request for one of my clients, please direct it to Monica MacSwan: Monica@aitkenalexander.co.uk 

Please do not submit unsolicited work directly to Matilda. Our submissions guidelines can be found here and work that is submitted to Matilda will not be considered.