Agents Panel - Bios
Joe Sedgwick has supported writers professionally for ten years. He began work as a Literary Agent at Seventh Agency in 2024 and is actively looking for non-fiction and literary fiction from global voices and writers who are under-represented in the UK publishing industry. He has a Publishing MA from Kingston University, is on the Board of Trustees at Spread the Word, and also works as Head of Writing Services at The Literary Consultancy. Joe is now actively building a list at Seventh Agency, and wants to see expert-led writing that presents a vibrant, thoughtful, and unique perspective of the world.
Gyamfia Osei began her career as a Bookseller at Waterstones, before moving to Amsterdam to work as a Sales Director at an international publishing company. Returning to London, she began building a dynamic list of authors at The Good Literary Agency, before joining Andrew Nurnberg Associates as a Literary Agent in 2023. At ANA, Gyamfia is focusing on developing the agency’s list of children’s authors, from middle grade up to New Adult, while also representing a bespoke list of commercial adult fiction and narrative non-fiction. In the children’s space, Gyamfia would love to find contemporary stories that are full of heart and joy-driven books that celebrate kids from underrepresented backgrounds (think B.B. Alston, Kimberly Whittam and Ann Liang). Funny middle-grade books, YA/NA across all genres, boy-led stories in the Stormbreaker space, and teen projects (for fans of Steady For This and Glow Up Lara Bloom) are at the top of her wish list this year. Among other accolades, her authors have been selected for the BookBuzz and Empathy Lab lists, as well as shortlisted for The British Book Awards, The Sports Book Awards and UKLA Book Awards. Gyamfia was named as a Bookseller Rising Star in 2024.
Tom Killingbeck specialises in non-fiction, seeking fresh, expert perspectives on history, science, nature, politics, big ideas, smart thinking, economics, health, and the arts. He is particularly interested in writers who can open readers’ minds, improve their lives and help them see the world differently, whether that be through untold histories, ground-breaking science, or revelatory journalism.
He joined AM Heath as a literary agent in 2022, and was listed as a Bookseller Rising Star the following year. His first deal was for Zeinab Badawi’s An African History of Africa, which sold for six figures and went on to become an instant Sunday Times bestseller.
He has worked with authors who have won or been shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, the Nero Book Awards, the Royal Society Science Book Prize, the Telegraph Sports Book Award, the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, the Wainwright Prize, the PEN Ackerley Prize and the Penderyn Music Book Prize.
Sarah Ballard studied English Language and Literature at Oxford University and Publishing at Oxford Brookes University before starting her publishing career in editorial at Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton. She was In House Editor at PFD from 2000, working across the agency’s client list to develop and support every sort of writing, and particularly with the legendary agent Pat Kavanagh. She began working solely as a literary agent in my own right in 2008 with the creation of United Agents, which she helped to establish, and where she worked for 16 years. She has held the position of Treasurer to the Association of Authors’ Agents and been shortlisted for the British Book Awards Agent of the Year.
In 2024 she was delighted to be invited to join the team at C&W.
Ruth Harrison is the Director of Spread the Word, London’s literature development agency. She has been Director of Apples and Snakes, a literature development officer and programme manager at The Reading Agency. She is passionate about widening people’s engagement with writers and writing and supporting writing talent. Focused on opening up opportunities alongside developing and building awareness of new voices, her work has equity and access at its heart.