Meet Najla
Najla is an avid reader and loves great first chapters, immersive world building, deep character profiles, and well-rounded dialogue. She has taught courses at several writing conferences, including Common Mistakes In First Chapters, Writing Rules That Can Be Broken, Self-Editing Before the Query, Getting The History And Voice Right, and many other topics. She volunteers as co-chair of American Association of Literary Agents’ Professional Development committee and member of the People of Publishing planning committee for the AALA’s annual meeting of literary agents, editors, and publishing professionals.
As of July 1, 2026, Najla is only open to the following:
Referrals by other publishing professionals
Requests through conferences and events
In nonfiction:
Narrative nonfiction based upon true people and places set in any time period on or before the 1970s, especially unknown history
African-American history and/or narrative nonfiction
Native American/Indigenous history and/or narrative nonfiction
Experiences of immigrants, ex-pats, and second-generation Americans.
Narrative nonfiction focused on injustice, bias, poverty, and social justice issues.
Medical, psychological (especially safety), and science/STEM
Technology, AI, and/or leadership
Women’s issues or themes, including health and well-being, second careers, finding love and partnerships, redefining friendships and relationships, found families
New Adult issues or themes
I am not seeking memoir comp’d to EDUCATED or WILD.
In fiction:
Retellings of any kind
Thriller/suspense/speculative featuring fictionalized Influencers
Female protagonists living double lives
Revenge stories
Workplace thriller with a fresh twist
A dual timeline (adult) mother-daughter mystery
A new adult travel abroad story
Deeper themes of humanity, exposing unknown fields and pieces of history
Near-future stories weaving in shared human themes like grief, death, separation, and/or loneliness in unexpected ways
Comps to:
Any Book by Thrity Umrigar or R.F. Kuang or Holly Black or Chloe Gong or Ali Hazelwood
Heart the Lover
The Wedding People
An American Marriage
When No One Is Watching
None of this is True
When Women Were Dragons
The Vanishing Half
A Burning
The Dead Romantics
A Million Junes
Everyone wants to rule the world, except me
The Seven Year Slip
Yellowface
The Unmaking of June Farrow
The Immoralists
The Bandit Queens
Devil is Fine
Go As A River
They Both Die At The End
Hemlock Island
Vanishing Girls
The Old Woman with the Knife
All My Rage
Take My Hand
She reviews full manuscripts up to 90,000 words.
Please send your query letter, one-two page synopsis, first three chapters, author bio with website link(s), social media link(s), and marketing plan (all documents must be in PDF format) to najla@savvyliterary.com.
Her most recent projects include:
In historical fiction, Sean Cooper’s THE WOLF’s BRIGADE, a carefully researched novel highlighting women’s roles in classical music, which follows a brilliant composer during the Civil War as she pursues her musical ambitions and finds her identity and the meaning of love and sacrifice. This novel, to be published by HISTORY THROUGH FICTION in Fall 2027, will appeal to readers of A GIRL CALLED SAMSON by Amy Harmon, BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett, and MARCH TO THE SEA by Carol Rudy Ludwick and Robert W. Rudy.
In memoir, Ivan Herndon, Detroit-born software executive’s CODING WHILE BLACK, an eye-opening personal account of how discrimination is built into Big Tech at every level, from corporate policies to office culture to individual lines of code, told by a trailblazing Black executive working to bring back the humanity to the digital age, to Alec Loganbill at Plainspoken Books, by Najla Mamou at Savvy Literary
In narrative nonfiction, Dr. Lisa Brandabur Kremer's STRONG ARMS: THE STORY OF JOCKEY JAKE HEUPEL IN THE GOLDEN ERA OF HORSE RACING, exploring the life of the elite thoroughbred jockey, who ran away from his childhood home in Kentucky to become an apprentice in 1916 Havana, Cuba, later riding into the money in the Kentucky Derby and winding up his racing career watching the national favorite, Seabiscuit, race the 1937 Santa Anita Handicap, offering a human element to horse racing from the view of a popular, top money-winning jockey and the role of the strong women in the industry, to Eclipse Press, in a nice deal, for publication in spring 2027,
In narrative nonfiction, THE FASTEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD: THE STORY OF DAREDEVIL JOAN LACOSTA by Tony St. Clair, which narrates the epic life behind the wheel of one of the most famous risk-taking female racers of all time in the 1920s, was published by Lyons Press in March 2025.
In memoir, Heather Sweeney’s CAMOUFLAGE: How I Emerged from the Shadows of a Military Marriage, detailing the hardships of life as a military spouse and her journey navigating divorce and her loss of identity in the shadows of her husband’s military career, to Post Hill Press, was published in Fall 2025. Audio is forthcoming through Recorded Books.
In memoir, Amy Scheiner's WHO I ONCE WAS, following the author's journey as one of the first teens to undergo bariatric surgery, before it was FDA approved, chronicling her experience with mental health facilities, generational trauma, and the search for wholeness against the backdrop of eating disorders and diet culture, to Joanna Green at Beacon Press, in a nice deal, for publication in spring 2027.
In crime/suspense fiction, CRADLE by Cobie LeJeanne, book 1 of the Haplin River Series pitched as Mare of Easttown meets SHARP OBJECTS, exploring mental health and trauma, about a judicious detective with synesthesia who must investigate the renowned angel-worshipping church where her overzealous half-sister is engaged to the reverend's son, and, despite their differences, come together to catch a cunning killer, was published by Tule in July 2025. Books 2 and 3 of the Haplin River Series will be published in December 2025 and August 2026, respectively. Books 4 and 5 of the series will be published in 2027.
In romance, THE LONGEST BLOOM by Rashah Solun, a coming-of-age crossover fiction centered around Juliet, a seventy-five-year-old woman who embarks on a journey of rediscovering and unearthing the joys and pleasures of life as an older Black woman, pitched as the voice of a Black SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO to Launch Point Press and was published in summer 2025.