Transatlantic Agency is delighted to announce that former Publisher Pieter Swinkels has been appointed to Director of Operations and Literary Agent, representing literary fiction and nonfiction authors and corporate publishing clients from around the world.
Pieter Swinkels worked as Chief Content Officer at Rakuten Kobo for the past twelve years, leading Kobo’s global publisher relations, the self-publishing platform Kobo Writing Life, the Kobo Originals publishing program, and the launch of Audiobooks and Kobo Plus subscriptions. Before that, Pieter was Publisher at the premiere Dutch publishing houses De Bezige Bij and Meulenhoff Publishers in Amsterdam, where he published bestselling and critically-acclaimed authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Khaled Hosseini, Aravind Adiga, Damon Galgut, Sebastian Barry, Jhumpa Lahiri, Mohsin Hamid, Rachel Cusk, Paolo Giordano, Robert Harris and Karin Slaughter.
Pieter is the founder of The Junction Media, a service supporting authors and publishers to publish and sell directly into international markets and developing IP properties across multiple formats.
Pieter holds a Cum Laude MA degree in English Language & Literature from the University of Amsterdam, and a MPhil in Irish Literature from Trinity College Dublin. He lives and works in Toronto.
Says Samantha Haywood: “As Transatlantic has grown into North America’s only literary agency with teams of agents in both the US and Canada, I’m thrilled for the executive book industry experience that Pieter brings to the organization to further streamline and boost international growth and strategic expansion. It will also be incredibly exciting to watch him return to working with international authors, and I can’t wait to see the talent he will discover.”
Welcome, Pieter!