About us
BGS Agency
Banke, Goumen & Smirnova Agency is a leading rights agency based in Sweden and Cyprus. We specialize in handling book and film rights, with a primary emphasis on fiction encompassing a wide spectrum, from highly literary works to commercial titles with mass-market appeal. Our list includes titles from Eastern Europe, including Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, as well as selected English-language titles.
Our team
The People of BGS
Natasha Banke
Natasha Banke was born in Moscow in 1975 and has been based in Sweden since 2000. She is a film producer with over 15 years of experience, having previously served as a film commissioner at the Oresund Film Commission (Sweden-Denmark). Additionally, Natasha is a literary translator, with several notable translations to her credit, including Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell and Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, among others. In 2012, she joined forces with Julia Goumen to leverage her expertise in books and film at the Banke, Goumen, and Smirnova Literary Agency, where she oversees the agency's representation in international publishing and the film industry.
Julia Goumen
Julia Goumen was born in Leningrad in 1977. She holds a PhD in English and has been involved in publishing since 2001, founding her own literary agency in 2004. After partnering with Natasha Banke in 2012, Julia shifted her focus to Russian-language publications, as well as film and theater adaptations. In the realm of film rights, she works closely with texts, offering editing and consulting on scripts and related materials.