Julia Kingsford
Co-Founder
Julia co-founded TGLA with Nikesh. She is a literary agent and publishing and consumer marketing consultant. She set up the literary agency Kingsford Campbell in 2014, where she still represents clients including Nikesh, and prior to that was co-founder and CEO of World Book Night and Head of Marketing at Foyles bookshops. She has been a British Council Young Publishing Entrepreneur, one of the Evening Standard’s 1000 Most Influential Londoners, one of The Bookseller’s 100 most influential people in publishing and the FutureBook Distruptor of the Year.
She is also co-writing a book with her sister Katherine, who is autistic which is called Aspergers & Asparagus and will be published by Bluebird in 2020.
At TGLA Julia and Nikesh share responsibility for the management, administration and strategy. Julia does not represent clients at TGLA.
Abi
Agent
Abi is a senior agent at TGLA. She has incredibly broad experience in the industry, having started in bookselling in 2001. Abi began her agenting career with Georgina Capel Associates, having also worked as a bookseller at Blackwell’s, on the sales team at Faber and Faber and as a literary scout at RR Ltd. Abi has a BA in English Literature from Bristol University and an MA in English Literature from UCL.
Abi also has experience as a school governor with particular involvement in the schools literacy programmes and their work with children who have special educational needs and are disabled.
Kemi
Agent
Kemi is a senior agent at TGLA. She began her career as an editorial assistant at publishers such as Simon & Schuster and Penguin Books, before embarking on a 5 year stint in Marketing within the Entertainment and Media sector, at brands like ITV. Her desire to advocate for under-represented talent led her into talent acquisition at Identity Agency Group (IAG), before joining TGLA as Literary Agent in 2020.
Briony
Agency Assistant
Briony is a queer disabled writer based in Cardiff.
Alongside her work for TGLA, Briony is an author, and her debut historical fiction novel, The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye, will be published in 2024 by Piatkus in the UK and Atria in the US. Her work has been nominated for various competitions, including the Lucy Cavendish Prize, the Penguin WriteNow Programme, and the CWA’s Short Story Competition.
When not working or writing, she spends her spare time knitting, playing video games and lounging around with her dog, Keanu.
Arzu
Development Editor
Arzu was Publishing Director at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, and has over 25 years of experience in the industry, having previously worked at Bloomsbury, Vintage, Penguin Random House and Virago. She has published many bestselling writers including Khaled Hosseini, Malala Yousafzai, Tea Obreht, Maria Semple. At TGLA Arzu uses her considerable experience and expertise to work with authors on editing and developing their work before submitting to publishers.
Nikesh
Co-Founder & Chair
Nikesh co-founded The Good Literary Agency with Julia and is now Chair. His debut novel, Coconut Unlimited, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2010. Alongside his second novel, Meatspace, Nikesh has written for The Guardian, Esquire, Buzzfeed, Vice and BBC2, and BBC Radio 4. Nikesh is also the editor of the bestselling essay collection, The Good Immigrant, which won the reader’s choice at the Books Are My Bag Awards. Nikesh was one of Foreign Policy magazine’s 100 Global Thinkers and The Bookseller’s 100 most influential people in publishing.