Thwaites becomes head of books at Curtis Brown as new children’s division announced 

Senior literary agent Steph Thwaites has been appointed head of books at Curtis Brown amid a raft of promotions within the agency’s book division, and she will be setting up a new children’s division.

In her new role as head of the Books Department, she succeeds Sheila Crowley and Gordon Wise, joint managing directors of the Book Department over the past three years, who continue in their book board and senior agent capacities.

Thwaites, whose background is in children’s books and whose clients include Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa and writers such as Bella Mackie and Tom Fletcher, will be creating a new children’s division where Isobel Gahan and Enrichetta Frezzato become agents alongside Roxane Edouard.

Their mission will be to discover and develop children’s writers with global reach, finding new voices across multiple languages.

Sophie Baker will become head of translation rights, taking over from Kate Cooper, who is also stepping back from management responsibilities. 

Baker, who has been at Curtis Brown for 15 years, represents international rights for Margaret Atwood, Donna Tartt, Tara Westover and Hanya Yanagihara among many others.

In total, 12 promotions have been made across the Books Division of The Curtis Brown Group, which includes The C&W Agency under head of department Sophie Lambert.

Sabhbh Curran has been promoted to agent, building a list of authors across fiction and non-fiction; Jess Molloy, formerly an associate agent, becomes an agent in Cathryn Summerhayes’ office; and Viola Hayden, formerly commissioning editor at Little, Brown, becomes an agent in Jonny Geller’s office, and will continue to build her own list across fiction and non-fiction.

Meanwhile Sophia MacAskill has been promoted to original audio and podcast agent; Tanja Goossens and Nadia Mokdad will become associate agents in the Translation Department; Ciara Finan and Rosie Pierce become associate agents in the Book Department; and Jodi Fabbri becomes associate agent in the Heritage division.

Kate Burton who heads C&W’s international rights team has also announced the promotion of Matilda Ayris to associate rights agent and César Castañeda Gámez to rights executive. 

Chief executive of The Curtis Brown Group Jonny Geller said: “This new wave of promotions ushers in a generation of agents at CB who will bring new voices in many languages to the world.”

Thwaites commented: “At Curtis Brown we have always prided ourselves on recognising and developing talent and discovering future stars in the writers we champion and the employees we empower. I’m delighted to be part of the process of continuing this tradition and further enhancing the impressive teams we have in place across Curtis Brown and C&W.”