BA, Harvard University. MFA, Iowa Writers' Workshop. Author of the novels Everyone Knows How Much I Love You (Ballantine, 2020) and the forthcoming Immersions (Tin House, 2026). McCarthy's short stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, American Short Fiction, Harvard Review, and on NPR's Selected Shorts. Her essays and reviews have appeared in n+1, The Brooklyn Rail, Paris Review Daily, Slate, and elsewhere. She has received awards from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, and the Lighthouse Works. SLC, 2026–
Writing
Open, Seminar—Spring
WRIT 3333
How does fiction shape our understanding of what it means to grow up? In this course, we will read and respond to a range of 20th- and 21st-century short stories and novellas that reinvigorate the classic literary genre of the bildungsroman, which traditionally depicts a young person’s moral or spiritual education. As we read, we will examine how these works use voice and narrative structure to convey growth, asking questions such as: What is knowledge? And how is the (growing, changing) self constituted by its particular social world? We will also respond to in-class creative prompts to develop our own fictional coming-of-age tales. Readings will potentially include works by Jamaica Kincaid, Justin Torres, Sayaka Murata, Graham Greene, Carson McCullers, Jeanette Winterson, and Toni Morrison, among others. Students will workshop an evolving short story or novella excerpt over the course of the semester and also read and respond to their peers’ work.