Mia Dalia joins John Jarrold’s agency, bringing madness, islands, and perforated skies with her (book news).
Mia Dalia, the internationally published author with a taste for the fantastic, the thrilling, the scary, and the downright odd, has signed with the John Jarrold Literary Agency. A move that suggests the eldritch gods are clearly working overtime in the British publishing world.
Dalia, who was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association’s Short Story Dagger Award in 2024, has already made a name for herself with dozens of short stories, anthologies, and appearances on narrative podcasts. Her new novel, Perforated Sky, seems determined to ensure that anyone heading to a “remote island research facility” in fiction will know exactly what’s waiting for them: the end of their sanity and possibly civilisation itself.
Set against the backdrop of a war-ravaged, climate-blighted future, the book follows Tim Prentice, an archaeologist turned janitor (as you do) who finds himself trapped in a nightmare when the island’s ancient secrets start whispering in the dark. The blurb suggests things quickly escalate from “difficult working conditions” to “cosmic horror with teeth.”
Praise for Dalia’s work has already come thick and fast, from Michael Marshall Smith calling one of her novels “one of the best I’ve read in years,” to Stephen Jones labelling it a “horror tour-de-force.” Fellow genre names such as Clay McLeod Chapman, Neil Sharpson, Edward Ashton, M.R. Carey, and A.C. Wise have all sung from the same hymn sheet — albeit one that probably contains an unhealthy number of ominous footnotes and bloodstains.
John Jarrold himself is suitably enthusiastic about bringing her aboard, declaring: “From the first page I loved this. The voice, the story, the characters and the setting all drew me in as I read on. Mia has a very special talent. And I love cosmic horror!”
Here at SFcrowsnest, we’re quietly thrilled that another writer is keeping the Great Old Ones in steady work. Perforated Sky promises nightmares aplenty, and Dalia’s upcoming works with Lethe Press, Earthling Publications, PS Publishing, Crystal Lake Publishing, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine suggest she’ll be haunting your bookshelves for years to come.
