The Class of 2025 9
Sabhbh Curran Curtis Brown
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After degrees at Oxford and Cambridge, Sabhbh Curran was weighing a career in either editorial or law. Then came a brainwave that agenting might be “the best of both worlds: the ability to get stuck into the creative process from an early stage and take the lead on the negotiation”. After a post at Sheil Land, she moved to Curtis Brown, latterly becoming Sheila Crowley’s assistant. Curran started building her own list in 2020 with a cookery focus – her first client was Yotam Ottolenghi’s protégé Ixta Belfrage. Curran continues to rep a starry, foodie stable (Thomasina Miers, Ravinder Bhogal), but has expanded into narrative non-fiction and “select” fiction including selling fashion guru Mary Portas’ memoir to Canongate and award-winning novelist Naomi Booth’s raw content to Corsair. Curran’s job is now complicated by AI. While Curran understands the industry’s trepidation, she says: “The anxiety is hindering our ability to seek out the potential and to get ahead of these advances so that we can protect our authors.”
Sponsored by
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Rachael Davis-Featherstone Creative Roots Studio
9 10 Aoife Datta Orion
Dubliner Aoife Datta grew up “in a family of non-readers” but an encouraging teacher got her interested in books, which led to an English literature and philosophy degree at Trinity College. A Penguin Ireland internship convinced her to try to break into London publishing and, after couch surfing at her sister’s and being put up via The Spare Room project, she landed a publicity and marketing post at Pavilion before a six-year stint at Scribe UK. Poached by Orion in 2023, she has led a string of campaigns, such as her work this year on Lucy Rose’s fem-gore hit The Lamb. Recently promoted to head of publicity, Datta is looking forward to the year ahead, which includes poet Raymond Antrobus’ first non-fiction and Malala Yousafzai’s memoir. She hopes for “a reinvestment in publishing… Publishers are [now] making safe choices based on commercial predictability, and innovative, change-driving companies and initiatives are shuttering… the publishing industry looks inwardly at its own peril”.
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Channelling her surname, Davis-Featherstone is a multi- hyphenate talent. After studying maths at Oxford University and working in investment banking, the catalyst to pursue writing was the untimely death of her mother. Davis-Featherstone has now had 30 projects signed, including her Waterstones Children’s Book Prize-shortlisted picture book, a six-figure deal for her upcoming YA and an adult novel. A sustainable career became “even more important” as a single parent and inspired her to co-found Creative Roots Studio last year. The past 18 months have seen her further advocacy work as an RLF Fellow, a board member for English PEN and ALCS, and a Jericho Prize judge. She negotiated deals for clients from under- represented communities, the first of which will hit shelves in 2026, alongside the completion of a PhD examining how to increase authentic mixed-race representation in children’s books. As business partner Fiz Obsorne puts it, Davis- Featherstone is “determined to make a difference”.
12 Paula Dias Garcia Sans. PRESS 12
In 2020, Brazil native Paula Dias Garcia moved to Ireland to do the University of Limerick’s MA in creative writing. There, they met Sam Agar and the duo would soon co-found a project that has morphed into Sans. PRESS. With its “fresh and weird” motto, Sans. PRESS publishes boundary-pushing fiction that often looks to those from marginalised communities; early-career writers who have been boosted in its pages include Irish Book Week ambassador Courtney Smyth and An Post Irish Short Story of the Year longlistee Aran Kelly. Dias Garcia says: “The highlight of my career has been to watch our contributors receive due recognition for their outstanding work… [it shows] that our passion for their writing finds a lot of echo with readers once it is shared.” Dias Garcia and Agar are soon to move into publishing full-length novels and “a more personal goal is to begin translating our publications, with an initial focus in bringing our titles to Brazil”.
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AARON DANIEL JACOBSEN
Features
Rising Stars
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