Literary agent and rights director Samar Hammam, who founded Rocking Chair Books Literary Agency in 2013 after six years as a director at Toby Eady Associates, died May 18. She was 48. The Bookseller reported that she had previously worked as a literary scout in New York City for Linda Clark Associates, and also handled translation rights for International Creative Agency and U.K. and Commonwealth rights for Raya Agency and the Anjali Singh Agency.
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Sallyanne Sweeney, director and agent at ICA, said Hammam "exuded class and style in everything she did, from publisher auctions to book fair outfits. Handling some of Samar's meetings at this year's London Book Fair gave me a fresh insight into the love and respect she held from editors around the world. She was fiercely principled, fearless and funny, with exquisite taste and a talent for matchmaking authors and publishers and gathering like-spirited people together."
In a post Hammam wrote last year for ICA, which the agency said "epitomized her peerless flair, tenacity and care as a translation agent," Hammam wrote: "Foreign publishers chase obvious hits; the auction books, the buzzy titles dripping with 'FOMO'--these deals practically sell themselves. But they are the exceptions. Most books need a bit more help to travel. A successful book deal can come from anywhere: a chance meeting in the coffee line at a book fair, or a seven-year courtship of an editor who loved an author's debut but needed time to make it work. Right now the landscape is shifting. Reader habits are changing. AI looms....
"But one thing that hasn't changed for me is the thrill of finding an unexpected home for a book. The cavernous gap between what seems possible and what actually happens. Selling translation rights isn't just about the easy wins--though I love those ones dearly. For me, there's a special place for those translation deals which seem to come out of nowhere, but were built on years of quiet determination."
ICA added: "Samar's indomitable spirit will remain a guiding force to us at ICA. We will miss her enormously."