Anna Dawson is a junior agent at Johnson & Alcock. She works alongside our primary agents and is currently building her own list of authors. She also looks after audio rights and permissions for our authors and Estates, as well as managing the agency’s social media.

Born and raised in Ireland, Anna studied History at Trinity College Dublin and went on to complete a Masters in Literature and Publishing at NUI Galway. She joined J&A in 2021 and has been happily submerged in manuscripts ever since.

In fiction, Anna is looking for literary fiction and book club novels, as well as romance, historical, crime/thriller, romantasy, horror, mystery and fantasy that skews towards the nostalgic. She is drawn to fiction with a strong sense of voice, emotional intelligence and narrative momentum and books that combine sharp characterisation with warmth and wit. She’s particularly interested in writing that sits confidently between literary and commercial fiction, with memorable characters and a strong hook.

In non-fiction, Anna is keen to find distinctive voices which bring personal experience into conversation with bigger questions, through memoir, essay collections and creative narrative non-fiction. She’s also looking for food writing, nature, cookery, history, books about cultural and current affairs and self-help. She is drawn to writing about grief, family, identity, creativity, food, work, friendship, class and culture – anything that feels thoughtful, candid, observant and beautifully expressed.

Anna is not looking for poetry or children’s and middle-grade books.

Anna welcomes email submissions and can be contacted on adawson@johnsonandalcock.co.uk