Poets & Writers Theater

In this 2020 McSweeney’s Instagram Live reading, Mai Nardone reads an excerpt from his short story “The Tum-Boon Brigade,” which appears in his debut story collection, Welcome Me to the Kingdom (Random House, 2023). Nardone’s book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I really was thinking like I have to work harder than any other writer in the world. I just wanted so badly to figure this out, to figure out how to write.” In this installment of the Paris Review’s “My First Time,” Sheila Heti discusses writing her first book, The Middle Stories (McSweeney’s, 2001), and how she came to write short stories after quitting theater school.

“It was sad. I would rather talk to my idea of a person, a fantasy ghost-person that existed only in my imagination, than talk with my own parents.” Patty Yumi Cottrell, author of Sorry to Disrupt the Peace (McSweeney’s, 2017) and a recipient of a 2018 Whiting Award in fiction, reads from her essay “My Abyss.”

Kevin Larimer, editor in chief of Poets & Writers Magazine, moderates as editors Jordan Bass of McSweeney's Publishing and Ethan Nosowsky of Graywolf Press join literary agent Danielle Svetcov and publicist Megan Fishmann of Counterpoint Press for a conversation about how authors can make a good impression—in cover letters, book proposals, and even at social gatherings.

"You have to give in and see where your characters are going, and follow them a bit." Miriam Toews, whose latest novel, All My Puny Sorrows, was released in paperback by McSweeney's this week, speaks about how her writing process has evolved over the last two decades.

"There's nothing in here of any substance." Bob Odenkirk speaks about his debut collection of essays, published last October by McSweeney's, and why the book will enter the canon of good toilet literature. 

"The humor is just an organic part of the way that I see the world." Miriam Toews talks about the humor in the dark moments of her new novel, published this month by McSweeney's. Based on the suicide of her sister, the book was a finalist for Canada's Scotiabank Giller Prize this year.

Author Mike Lacher's humor piece titled “In Which I Fix My Girlfriend’s Grandparents’ WiFi and am Hailed as a Conquering Hero" is brought to life in this animated adaptation. The piece was published in The Best of McSweeney's Internet Tendency (McSweeney's Books, 2014).

Watch this video that is both a clever book promotion for The Best of McSweeney’s and a playful commentary on the demise of print. Fittingly, this clip also honors an era of film rendered obsolete by the relentless advance of technology.

The author of ten books, including the novel Between Heaven and Here (McSweeney's, 2012), delivered this talk on telling stories at an independently organized TED event in Redondo Beach, California, back in October.

In this clip the actor, filmmaker, and author of No One Belongs Here More Than You (Scribner, 2007) and It Chooses You (McSweeney's, 2011), among other books, offers a helpful strategy for avoiding procrastination.

The folks at McSweeney's Quarterly Concern put together this audio-visual preview of their thirty-sixth issue, which was published last month and features more than five hundred pages of stories and artwork contained in a box more or less the size of a human head.