Welcome to Rosalie Siegel International Literary Agent, Inc.
Prior to founding her independent literary agency in 1977, Rosalie Siegel began her career as an agent in the late sixties representing French authors on behalf of Editions Robert Laffont in Paris.
Today the agency concentrates on a wide range of authors, several of whom live and work abroad. Her client base is evenly divided between fiction and non-fiction. Areas of particular interest include, but are not limited to, the arts, biography, current events, health and medicine, history, memoir, psychology, travel essays, and cross disciplinary works in scientific fields.
The first American novel she sold was
BIRDY by William Wharton. Published in 1978, it is still in print in a Vintage edition. She sold film rights to William Wharton's first three published novels:
BIRDY, DAD and
A MIDNIGHT CLEAR.
Among the authors currently represented by the agency are Jonathan Ames, Meredith Broussard, Gordon Chang, Dennis Covington, Porochista Khakpour, Chandra Prasad, and Teddy Wayne. Ames' recent
WAKE UP, SIR! (Scribner 2004) and Porochista Khakpour's forthcoming debut novel,
SONS AND OTHER FLAMMABLE OBJECTS (Grove/Atlantic September, 2007) are among the notable works of fiction on her list. Published in September, 2007, Grove reissues SONS AND OTHER FLAMMABLE OBJECTS in trade paperback with a new cover in September 2008. Since hardcover publication the novel has been highly praised and gone on to win the 77th Annual California Book Award for First Fiction, and been nominated for the shortlist for the 2008 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing sponsored by Stanford and long listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize for Young Writers in 2008.
In 2009 Scribner's will publish a new collection of previously published fiction and non-fiction by Jonathan Ames entitled THE DOUBLE LIFE IS TWICE AS GOOD. Noteworthy in the collection is the novella
Bored To Death, first published by McSweeneys No. 24 in Fall '07. A pilot is currently in production with HBO for a potential half hour comedy series with Jason Schwartzman slated to star. Ames has written the screenplay for the pilot and will executive produce. He has also penned screenplays for his novels THE EXTRA MAN and WAKE UP, SIR!
Recently published historical fiction includes Caroline Seebohm's THE INNOCENTS (Algonquin, April 2007) and Chandra Prasad's ON BORROWED WINGS, (Atria, June 2007) to be reissued as a paperback in Fall 2008.
Marlena de Blasi has achieved wide readership for her memoirs about marriage to an Italian and adapting to life and cooking in Italy. All three of her memoirs,
A THOUSAND DAYS IN VENICE, A THOUSAND DAYS IN TUSCANY and
THE LADY IN THE PALAZZO, published by Algonquin, have been favorites with reading groups. Watch for her stunning new book (Ballantine, Spring 2008) about an unusual community of women in Sicily and the unparalleled love story that is the linchpin of the book.
The agency also represents Ann Rinaldi, who is a major historical novelist of young adult fiction. Harcourt has sold over one million copies of her titles. In addition, she has been published by Scholastic, including their Dear America series, Hyperion's Jump at the Sun, Simon & Schuster and by HarperCollins.
Siegel serves as American and Canadian sub-agent for Mary Kling's La Nouvelle Agence in Paris, through whom she represents Nancy Huston, winner of the 2006 Prix Femina award for
FAULT LINES (McArthur & Co, Toronto, October, 2007). Grove Atlantic publishes the novel in the U.S. in October 2008.
With representatives in all translation markets, Ms. Siegel has been responsbile for selling translating rights in the U.S. during the entire course of her career. Until 1997 she served as a amjor scout vetting the American market on behalf of European houses. On behalf of La Nouvelle Agence she is currently representing Mathieu Belizi's major Fall 2008 novel about the Algerian struggle for independence published by Albin Michel in Paris.
Through her efforts, and those of Maria Strarz Kanska's Graal agency in Warsaw, William Wharton became the number one bestselling American author in Poland during the 1990's and beyond after communism fell. His earlier works were reissued while new works have been brought to market in Polish translation.
One of the agency's most noteworthy backlist titles is
BANKER TO THE POOR, the autobiography of Muhammad Yunus, the economist who created the concept of micro-credit, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The Public Affairs trade paperback edition is selling steadily and has been widely taken for course adoption.
You will find more information about our authors in the
Recent Titles and
Backlist sections of our website.
