Amanda Urban

Amanda "Binky" Urban
Urban in 2011
Born1946 or 1947 (age 79–80)
EducationWheaton College (Massachusetts)
OccupationLiterary Agent
SpouseKen Auletta
Awards2010 Maxwell E. Perkins Award

Amanda "Binky" Urban is an American literary agent and partner at ICM Partners.

Urban started at ICM as a literary agent, worked as Co-Director of the ICM Literary Department in New York, and had been Managing Director of ICM Books in London from 2002 to 2008. Before ICM, she was General Manager of New York Magazine and The Village Voice, and Editorial Manager of Esquire Magazine.

In December 2010, the Center for Fiction awarded Urban the Maxwell E. Perkins Award in recognition of her work and contribution to the field of fiction writing. She was the first book agent selected to receive the award.

Urban attended Kent Place School and graduated from Wheaton College in Massachusetts as an English major in 1968.

She has represented dozens of authors, among them Jennifer Egan, Bret Easton Ellis, Nora Ephron, and Cormac McCarthy. She was representing Donna Tartt for three decades until Tartt very publicly fired her in 2017. Urban also works with Nobel Prize recipient Kazuo Ishiguro and Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Siegel, Tatiana (April 13, 2016). "New York Power Pairing: ICM Partners' 'Binky' Urban and New Yorker Writer Ken Auletta Share a Literary Life". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  2. ↑ "ICM Partners Ups 11 Agents to Partner". The Hollywood Reporter. October 21, 2013. Archived from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  3. ↑ Chase, Lisa (October 16, 2018). "To Binky Urban, 'Power' Is a Male Word". The Cut. Archived from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  4. 1 2 "The Center for Fiction". www.centerforfiction.org. Archived from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Ken Auletta Weds Amanda J. Urban". The New York Times. June 18, 1977. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Amanda Urban - ICM". www.curtisbrown.co.uk. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  7. ↑ "2010 Awards Dinner, Center for Fiction". centerforfiction.org. Archived from the original on July 18, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  8. ↑ Kroll, Justin (December 6, 2010). "Insiders Kudos: Amanda 'Binky' Urban". Variety. Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2019.
  9. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (July 9, 2010). "Binky Urban Is First Book Agent To Win Center For Fiction's Maxwell Perkins Prize". Deadline. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  10. ↑ Horner, Shirley. "About Books" Archived October 25, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, September 4, 1994. Accessed October 25, 2019. "Its noted graduates include Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden, Republican of Millburn; Deborah Wiley, vice chairwoman of John Wiley & Sons, and Amanda Urban, a powerful literary agent."
  11. 1 2 Faught, Andrew (October 24, 2017). "The royal treatment". Wheaton Magazine of Wheaton College Massachusetts. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  12. ↑ ICM. "Amanda Urban, Clients". www.curtisbrown.co.uk. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  13. ↑ Simon, Lizzie (December 8, 2010). "Agent Wins Literary Prize". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on November 9, 2017. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  14. ↑ Nazaryan, Alexander (October 14, 2013). "Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch Neither Sings Nor Flies". Newsweek. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved December 9, 2025.
  15. ↑ "Exclusive | Donna Tartt drops her agent, shocks literary community | Page Six". November 17, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
  16. ↑ "The Cult of Haruki Murakami". Esquire. November 21, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
  17. ↑ "Amanda Urban | Creative Artists Agency Literary Agent". Amanda Urban | Creative Artists Agency Literary Agent. Retrieved October 9, 2025.