About

Georges and Anne Borchardt co-founded the New York-based literary agency, Georges Borchardt, Inc., in 1967. Georges Borchardt introduced to American readers major works by Roland Barthes, Samuel Beckett, Pierre Bourdieu, Gilles Deleuze, Marguerite Duras, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Eugene Ionesco, Jacques Lacan, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jean-Paul Sartre, Elie Wiesel and Monique Wittig. In 2010, he was awarded the insignia of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

Georges Borchardt, Inc. today is primarily an agency for English language writers, and currently represents over 200 authors including eight Pulitzer Prize winners and two Nobel Prize winners. The agency represents novelists and nonfiction writers as well as several major literary estates.

Valerie Borchardt joined the agency in 1999. Several of her clients have appeared on The New York Times bestseller list. She is the president and the foreign rights director. She has a BA from Wesleyan University and a Masters in Slavic Language and Literature from Columbia University.

After graduating from Colgate University, Samantha Shea joined Georges Borchardt, Inc. in 2010 and was made a Vice President in 2016. Her list includes literary fiction, memoir/narrative nonfiction, journalism, popular culture, essays, cultural criticism, and history. Samantha’s authors are regularly named for numerous awards and honors, including the “5 Under 35” honor from the National Book Foundation, the “Best of Young American Novelists” honor from Granta Magazine, the Kirkus Prize, the Whiting Award, the National Book Critics Circle Awards, the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize, and others.

Selected Authors: Lesley Nneka Arimah, Nona Aronowitz, Chelsea Bieker, Anna Bruno, Amy Butcher, Jane Delury, Camille Dungy, Lydia Fitzpatrick, Simon Han, Greg Jackson, Andrew Moore, Adam O’Fallon Price, Willa Richards, David Ridgen, Charlotte Shane, Shruti Swamy, Barrett Swanson, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, Elizabeth Wetmore, Jenny Zhang.

Cora Markowitz graduated from Kenyon College in 2017 with a BA in English and completed the Columbia Publishing Course the following summer. She interned at the Kenyon Review, Flatiron Books, Pippin Properties, and Writers House before making her way over to Georges Borchardt as the assistant to Georges. She is now taking on clients of her own as well as handling film rights for the agency.

Mira Coles graduated from the University of Oregon in 2024 with a BA in Comparative Literature. She has interned at INCLUDAS Publishing and completed the Columbia Publishing Course in the fall of 2024. Now at the Georges Borchardt Agency, she is the assistant to Valerie.

A NOTICE – It's been brought to our attention that someone has been pretending to work for our agency and has been requesting money in exchange for reading an author’s materials. Please note that our agents will never ask for money to review proposals or manuscripts for the agency. If you receive a suspicious message or are contacted by someone claiming to work at our agency and want to verify their authenticity, please call our main office number: 212-753-5785.