John McNally is author or editor of seventeen previous books, including The Book of Ralph: A Novel and The Boy Who Really, Really Wanted to Have Sex: The Memoir of a Fat Kid. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, John is Writer-in-Residence and the Dr. Doris Meriwether/BORSF Professor in English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
See the interviews and reviews below to learn more about The Fear of Everything and listen to John discuss his life and writing.
Conversation Between Friends: Sadie Hoagland and John McNally
Sadie Hoagland and John McNally are colleagues at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Here, they talk craft in their latest books, McNally’s fiction collection The Fear of Everything (September 2020; University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press), and Hoagland’s novel Strange Children (forthcoming May 2021; Red Hen Press) . . . Read Now
Kelly Fordon Interview
“The Phone Call” by John McNally, is a story that will deposit you deep in a closed timeline curve and though it is quite a trip, I have faith that you will make it back to reality in one piece . . . Listen Now
Reading and Writing Podcast Interview
The 333rd episode of the Reading & Writing podcast features an interview with John McNally, author of the collection The Fear of Everything: Stories . . . Listen Now
Fiction Writers Review Interview
I read The Fear of Everything in one sitting, a thing I rarely do with collections of stories. But, from the first pages, I found it hard to pull away from the sense of tangible longing at its core . . . Read Now
Largehearted Boy: John McNally's Playlist for His Story Collection The Fear of Everything
When I write short stories, I’m increasingly less interested in how things change during the course of the narrative in terms of action and increasingly more interested in how to push the narrative forward through mood . . . Read Now
WRKF Radio Interview
General Russel Honore‘ discusses The Fear of Everything with John McNally . . . Listen Now
The Sunlight Press
The nine stories in this collection seem to take the reader on a roller-coaster ride: They’re full of eventful highs and somber depths — and you can’t get off once you start . . . Read Now
Deep South Magazine Lists The Fear of Everything as a Best Fall/Winter Read for 2020-21
If you want some short stories full of twists and turns that send shivers down your spine, look no further than John McNally’s The Fear of Everything. . . . Read Now
New York Journal of Books
Although McNally’s stories seem unbelievable at first, they throb with a recognizable human heartbeat, powered by love and regret and the mystery of life . . . Read Now
Foreword Reviews
These stories are not inhabited by traditional supernatural monsters, but rather by the specters of regret for decisions made or not made, and by the repercussions of unrealized opportunities and events long past . . . Read Now
Another Chicago Magazine
I’m here to say John McNally’s new story collection has reenergized me as a reader and a writer, and I fully expect it will exert those powers on you . . . Read Now
