Safae El-Ouahabi

Since joining RCW in 2019, Safae El-Ouahabi has been working alongside Claire Wilson and Jon Wood across the children's and YA fiction and commercial adult fiction and non-fiction lists. She is also actively growing her own list, with a wide-ranging taste but a particular interest in dynamic, voice-driven narratives that carry a sense of urgency—stories that are emotionally impactful and have a strong hook without being overwritten. She enjoys both dark, gritty narratives and quirky, offbeat stories, with a love for smart-mouthed dialogue and strong plots.

Whether in adult, YA, or crossover, she enjoys fantasy and speculative fiction books that draw connections to real-world issues. Favourites include N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy, which blends fantasy with cli-fi elements, M.L. Wang's Blood Over Bright Haven—a fascinating character study on how belief systems and propaganda shape people’s thinking and behaviour—and R.F. Kuang’s Babel, where fantasy intersects with historical allegory as it delves into the themes of structural oppression, colonialism, language and resistance.

Safae also loves stories that put a fresh spin on familiar tales and tropes, including enemies-to-lovers, fake relationships, or forbidden love, as well as inventive, subversive, and wonderfully unhinged satires—like Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang. Her interests span to Romantasy, and she is a big reader of fanfic and loves that style of bingeable writing.

NOT looking for: poetry, short stories, novellas, picture books, middle grade fiction, memoirs

She supports translators working from languages of the Global Majority and served as a judge for the inaugural PEN Presents x International Booker Prize programme.

Safae El-Ouahabi

Clients Include