Jenissa Graham, Agent at BookEnds Literary

Jenissa Graham, Agent at BookEnds Literary

For Jenissa, her passion for books started in third grade when she read Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and fell in love with the world building and underdog story. Her interest in storytelling bloomed the same year in an essay she wrote for school about a magical crayon that came to life to help solve a mystery. This was the first of many ideas in her head that she decided to write in spiral notebooks and jot down on sticky notes.

Jenissa’s publishing career started at Writers House when she was selected for the Fall 2020 internship class. In January 2021, she was hired full time in the subrights department as the Global Licensing and Media Rights Assistant. She moved to BookEnds in April 2022, where she is thrilled to begin building a list as an Associate Agent and Subrights Manager. Jenissa is interested in increasing the BIPOC space in Publishing and is always on the lookout for new underrepresented authors.

Born in upstate New York and raised in Georgia, Jenissa is a first-generation Jamaican. She is an alumna of Georgia State University where she received her Bachelor’s in English, Creative Writing. Jenissa currently lives in New York, and when she’s not reading submissions, plotting new story ideas, or adding books to her never-ending to-be-read pile, you will most likely find her snacking, power napping, or binging reruns of Criminal Minds and The Office.

She represents MG and YA in contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery/suspense, and thrillers as well as Adult in mystery/suspense and thrillers.

Work with Jenissa

LIVE Meetings: Meet face-to-face, from home. Choose Zoom, Google Meet, or phone, and speak for the appointed time about your query, first page, and/or first ten pages (for longer meetings). Does not include written notes, but is a chance to have an honest discussion about your work, and to ask follow-up questions. International meetings welcomed.

WRITTEN Critiques: Get detailed, thoughtful notes on your work. Comes with large-scale edits (character, world, plot, tension, concept, conflict, and similar as needed) in an editorial letter and small-scale, line-by-line notes as needed (for longer critiques, an average of three per page). Work arrives in your inbox by the date on the calendar.

HYBRID is a live meeting at the appointment time, with written notes.