Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency

Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency In the shifting scene of today's publishing industry, JVNLA is a locus of guidance, support, and partnership.

With over 45 years thriving, JVNLA is a literary agency defined by commitment and passion, led by a collaborative team dedicated to fostering writers' careers through every step of the publishing process. Our collaborative team redefines commitment and passion and our ideas seek out publishing's cutting edge with a bold business philosophy that has proved its worth.

Happy Publication Day to THE LAO KITCHEN: Lao Flavors and Stories Told Through Family Recipes by ! Explore Lao food thro...
04/21/2026

Happy Publication Day to THE LAO KITCHEN: Lao Flavors and Stories Told Through Family Recipes by !

Explore Lao food through 95 approachable, flavor-packed recipes from the popular food content creator behind Saeng’s Kitchen.

The Lao Kitchen dives into the heart of Lao foodways—often overlooked but deeply rooted in Southeast Asian traditions. Through thoughtful essays and memories connected to each recipe, Saeng tells his story as a member of the Lao diaspora, exploring his roots through food. Bold, flavorful, deeply personal, and featuring gorgeous photography from Laos and Saeng’s own kitchen, The Lao Kitchen is a celebration of community, the connection that food brings, and what it means to cook from the heart.

“Saeng Douangdara brings Laos to the table with recipes that are bold, soulful, and alive with memory. This book belongs on every shelf where flavor, family, and food history matter.”—Andrew Zimmern

“Drawing from both ancestral roots and personal stories, this book shines a light on a cuisine shaped by history, land, and ritual. More than a collection of recipes, this book is a tribute to the ties that food can build across tables, generations, and borders.”—Illyanna Maisonet, James Beard Award winner and author of Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook

Agent:
Publisher:
Editor: Zoey Brandt
📸 and 🍴:
📚Designer: Emma Campion
Writing Assistant: Roy Sherwood Lee
Lao Script Designer: RDK Group

Happy Publication Day to THAT MAY NOT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK and happy rerelease to WHEN THE MESSENGER IS HOT by ! A vision...
04/15/2026

Happy Publication Day to THAT MAY NOT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK and happy rerelease to WHEN THE MESSENGER IS HOT by !

A visionary and profound new collection from innovative author Elizabeth Crane

Throughout her body of work, Elizabeth Crane’s literary vision has always been singular and innovative, twisting form and bending reality into new universes. Her latest collection, That May Not Mean What You Think, explores themes of aging and youth, gender and discrimination, and s*x and love. In “Training Module,” Crane takes the structure and protocol of workplace harassment prevention training and turns it on its head; “The Box” tells the story of a woman trying to recover from divorce with the help of a literal unicorn; and “The Youngs” follows a group of teenagers experiencing loss for the first time, clinging to the belief that they’ll live forever. Across these delightfully weird and disarmingly truthful stories, American culture is refracted through humor and heart, asking readers to consider their complicity and to imagine new possibilities of participating in a better future.

“Every story is a banger, what an absolute delight.” ―Samantha Irby, New York Times bestselling author of Quietly Hostile

Happy Publication Day to THE MODEL PATIENT by ! A psychological tour-de-force about obsession, control, and the dangerou...
04/14/2026

Happy Publication Day to THE MODEL PATIENT by !

A psychological tour-de-force about obsession, control, and the dangerous relationship between a therapist and patient in 1960s London.

⭐️“Ashe draws readers in with this seductive story...Evocative, empathetic, and ultimately empowering, this coiled psychological thriller will be catnip for fans of Alex Michaelides.”

“Crackling with tension and rife with ingenious plot twists, Ashe’s latest is an exploration of friendship, marriage, and female objectification, set against the backdrop of 1960s London. Nothing is as it seems in this absorbing psychological thriller—and you won’t be able to put it down.”
Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Queen

Happy Publication Day to MY GREEK MOM’S RECIPES: She Died. I Wrote this Cookbook by ! 💙🍋Stand-up comedian Gus Constantel...
04/14/2026

Happy Publication Day to MY GREEK MOM’S RECIPES: She Died. I Wrote this Cookbook by ! 💙🍋

Stand-up comedian Gus Constantellis draws inspiration for his material and online content from his family, especially his mother, Julia, who became a social media star and “Greek mother” for an entire online community. And when she died suddenly in August 2023, that community mourned with him. My Greek Mom’s Recipes is Gus’s deeply personal tribute, a cookbook in which every dish comes with a story about his mother, an immigrant who never learned English yet managed to achieve the American dream.

Equal parts hilarious and heartfelt, this book offers a comedian’s candid look at grief and family. It will resonate with anyone who’s ever had an overbearing but fiercely loving mother, the kind who expresses affection through food, tough love, and a whole lot of opinions. And the 75 recipes themselves are the real deal—because if there was one thing Julia was known for, besides her razor-sharp humor, it was her unforgettable cooking.

Agent: Ariana Philips
Editor: Erin Canning
📸
Food Stylist:

Happy Publication Day to THE FORTUNE TELLERS OF RUE DARU by ! 🔮A fearless fortune teller in 1920s Paris must use her pow...
03/24/2026

Happy Publication Day to THE FORTUNE TELLERS OF RUE DARU by ! 🔮

A fearless fortune teller in 1920s Paris must use her powers to divine who she can trust when an exiled Romanov princess and her brother come to her seeking answers about a decades-old mystery…

⭐️“An ingenious literary magician, Gilmore effectively and elegantly conjures up Paris in the 1920s and its Russian émigré community, adding to her addictively readable gothic tale a dash of romance and a generous splash of spooky supernaturalism. Fans of Yangsze Choo’s The Fox Wife and Jessie Burton’s The Miniaturist will be equally enamored with this bewitching tale.” , starred

“Gilmore’s latest historical horror will be another crowd-pleaser. For fans of menacing supernatural tales of family secrets, ghosts, possession, and intrigue, such as Alma Katsu’s The Deep or Daphne Fama’s House of Monstrous Women.”

Happy Publication Day to A FEATHER AND A FORK by !A stunning, soul-nourishing cookbook from acclaimed Indigenous chef Cr...
03/17/2026

Happy Publication Day to A FEATHER AND A FORK by !

A stunning, soul-nourishing cookbook from acclaimed Indigenous chef Crystal Wahpepah, with a foreword by Tommy Orange. 🪶🍴

With a collection of 125 intertribal recipes, this is a powerful call to reconnect: to land, to history, and to the foodways that sustain us. Rooted in the stories of Oakland’s Native communities and shaped by generations of resilience, each dish offers both nourishment and healing.

Co-Author:
Agent:
Editor:
Publisher:
📷
Stylists &
Essential Guidance by

Happy Publication Day to BAD KID by ! A searing personal account of the so-called troubled teen industry, this graphic m...
03/10/2026

Happy Publication Day to BAD KID by !

A searing personal account of the so-called troubled teen industry, this graphic memoir exposes and humanizes the harrowing experience of so many young people in behavioral correction facilities.

“Szamosi’s memoir explores how labels shape societal views, the struggle of shedding those brands, and the methods that can help break the cycle—a story that will resonate strongly with anyone who has been unfairly typified.”

“A raw, deeply intimate account of a girl coming of age while trying to survive the troubled teen industry.”

couldn’t resist this trend! Meet our small but mighty team💥
03/06/2026

couldn’t resist this trend! Meet our small but mighty team💥

Happy Publication Day to SHIVA by ! After a tragic accident took the life of her brother Thomas, Eva is struggling to mo...
03/03/2026

Happy Publication Day to SHIVA by !

After a tragic accident took the life of her brother Thomas, Eva is struggling to move on with her life, counting cracks in the ceiling and trying not to fall off the wagon. But when the deceased Thomas shows up one evening in Eva’s apartment to tell her that she’s the one who died, not him, reality begins to fracture. As the universe attempts to reconcile its cosmic mistake, the siblings must come to terms with a terrifying truth.

“A startling exploration of grief, guilt, and spite through reverie, body horror, and unreliable narrators, unpacking a complex sibling relationship centered around what has been left unfinished.” -Ai Jiang, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Linghun

“Verona is unflinching in her portrayal of a sibling bond battered and stretched to its limits by guilt, frustration, resentment, and all the ugliness that comes with love. Shiva is grief horror as vicious and heartbreaking as family itself.” -J. A. W. McCarthy, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award finalist, author of Sleep Alone

Happy Publication Day to ALL IN HER HANDS by ! One woman physician. A group of talented midwives. A deadly disease sprea...
02/24/2026

Happy Publication Day to ALL IN HER HANDS by !

One woman physician. A group of talented midwives. A deadly disease spreading.

The third installment of the Nora Beady series is out now!

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