Jarred McGinnis
banner
jarredmcginnis.bsky.social
Jarred McGinnis
@jarredmcginnis.bsky.social
'Maybe America isn't ready for a superstar in a wheelchair.' - Ian MacKaye

New book! Out with Harvill in 2026. THERE IS NO MEANT TO BE.

Debut novel THE COWARD w. ‪@canongate.co.uk

jarredmcginnis.com
Pinned
There Is No Meant to Be" is available for preorder! My publisher promised that if I have 250 preorders that I get a case of prosecco left over from last year's Christmas party. 500 preorders before March & they'll go halfsies on a vintage George Foreman!

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ther...
I watched the film adaptation of McCarthy’s ‘Blood Meridian’. Less than impressed. However, Martin Short’s portrayal of the Kid was inspired.
November 8, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by Jarred McGinnis
After complaints about Timothy Dexter's A Pickle for the Knowing Ones (1797) being entirely devoid of punctuation, in future editions the eccentric businessman supplied a supplemental page so that people “may peper and solt as they please”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dexter-pickle
October 14, 2025 at 2:17 PM
If you fancy it, you'll fancy it even more saving 25%.
October 14, 2025 at 11:28 AM
I realise when tarot appears in fiction I have an immediate, possibly unfair, reaction.

Tarot in the book. Book in the bin. What's your reading red line?
October 2, 2025 at 7:16 AM
10% of my parenting is having tiny humans to show all my favourite movies. Is 8 and 9 too early for 'Night of the Hunter'?
October 2, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by Jarred McGinnis
Sobering take on the economics of publishing in 2025 from @samjordison.bsky.social. Books are incredibly cheap compared to other forms of, uh, entertainment. That's probably got to change. samj.substack.com
Galley Beggar - Pressing issues | SamJordison | Substack
Occasional ideas about books and publishing from Sam Jordison, co-director of Galley Beggar Press, editor, author and journalist. Click to read Galley Beggar - Pressing issues, by SamJordison, a Subst...
samj.substack.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Reposted by Jarred McGinnis
‘She and Toklas lived between two worlds – the official avant-garde world of Hemingway and Picasso, and the unofficial lesbian avant-garde of Natalie Barney and Janet Flanner and Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire.’

Adam Thirlwell on Gertrude Stein: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Adam Thirlwell · Devotion to the Cut: Gertrude Stein makes it plain
We’re so used to voice as confession, as a form of radical honesty, that it can be hard to appreciate Gertrude Stein...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 24, 2025 at 5:12 PM
One of my wife’s French friends when finding out who long we’ve been married asked her if I was her first ‘sex boy’. I’m using this title for all administrative forms now. Marital Status: spouse’s sex boy.
September 23, 2025 at 10:39 AM
I’ve been invited to my own event. I’m tempted to respond to the organisers to tell them on a number of occasions the author has touched me inappropriately.
September 19, 2025 at 1:20 PM
On the tram a nursing mother said Bon appétit to her baby. That’s peak French cuteness there.
September 10, 2025 at 10:35 AM
There Is No Meant to Be" is available for preorder! My publisher promised that if I have 250 preorders that I get a case of prosecco left over from last year's Christmas party. 500 preorders before March & they'll go halfsies on a vintage George Foreman!

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ther...
September 4, 2025 at 7:29 AM
I present the most french of french delicacies. Pruneaux fourrés. Some french prune farmers decided the only way to improve their plums was to stuff them with more plums.
Pruneaux fourrés are prunes stuffed with prune paste. They are magic.
July 30, 2025 at 7:44 AM
They call them proofs because it always feels like an elaborate hoax until you see them. Book 2 coming next March.
July 4, 2025 at 12:00 PM
@officialmelbrooks.bsky.social My daughters, 8 and 9, watched Spaceballs and have talked about nothing else. Lots of questions but glorious to see humour reach across generations.
June 13, 2025 at 7:43 AM
I needed to look up my French editor's name to make sure I spell it right (his name has so many accent marks it looks like a cactus) and I found this great photo. This was the first event in France at Librairie Le livre et la tortue in Paris. That's pretty much how I remember the event going.
June 12, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Jarred McGinnis
Gethan Dick signed some copies of Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night around Dublin recently. In case you didn't get one, we also have some limited, signed bookplates!
June 10, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Otto von Bismarck was reported to have challenged Rudolf Virchow to a duel. Virchow, being entitled to choose the weapons, chose two pork sausages, one infected with the roundworm Trichinella; the two would each choose and eat a sausage. Bismarck reportedly declined. @wikipedia.org
June 12, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Whenever my daughters struggle to open a jar, I do it and say 'Raw Power!' #iggypop

Now when they need me to open a jar or lid they just shout, 'Papa! I need Raw Power!'

I'm not going to lie. It gives me a little boost. 💪
June 12, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Reposted by Jarred McGinnis
Over on our Substack today, the inestimable @jarredmcginnis.bsky.social picks the books that inspire his own writing, books that push the form of nonfiction and memoir - from Hong Kingston to Harry Crews.

hinterlandnonfiction.substack.com/p/the-non-fi...
The Non-fiction That Shapes Us: Jarred McGinnis
Hinterland authors reflect on the non-fiction that inspires their own writing.
hinterlandnonfiction.substack.com
June 11, 2025 at 4:32 PM
They say you shouldn’t live your dreams through your children. They are wrong. Behold last night’s dinner. My daughter wanted quadruple potato. I made it happen.
June 8, 2025 at 9:00 AM
If I said it once, I've said it a million times, pride flags need more sweet-ass battle axes.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La...
June 8, 2024 at 2:27 PM
I know what song I'm picking for Karaoke.
June 5, 2024 at 1:03 PM
I told the girls if they clean up their room I'll put on a 'clean up' song.

Scourge of Iron by Cannibal Corpse

It worked!
June 4, 2024 at 6:59 PM
How's your french coming along?
April 17, 2024 at 9:07 AM
What I see when you post pictures of your kids on facebook.
April 8, 2024 at 7:36 AM