Jim McCarthy
Dystel, Goderich & Bourret
My Manuscript Wish List®
I’m always looking for fresh voices–whether that means authors from underrepresented communities, new takes on old tropes, something that hasn’t been seen before, or all of the above. I love a great humorous novel, but I’m also not afraid of anything dark and in particular will tumble hard for any book that can make me laugh or cry. While my list has a lot of YA and a lot of fantasy, and I’m always looking in those spaces, but I’m especially eager to find more middle grade and adult fiction at present.
I’d love to find sagas of family or friendship, queer stories of any kind, a super twisty thriller, and historical fiction about times and places that haven’t already been extensively covered.
I’m probably not your go-to for political or medical thrillers or police procedurals or stories involving time travel (with very rare exceptions).
Fun facts about me:
I’m a giant theater geek, so if there are any other nerds out there that these names mean anything to, these are the current playwrights whose work is, for me, unmissable: Lynn Nottage, Annie Baker, Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Amy Herzog, Stephen Karam, Suzan-Lori Parks, Samuel Hunter. If you can compare anything you do to anything they’ve done? Please send my way.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be emailed to jmccarthy@dystel.com
Please query me at https://querymanager.com/query/JimMcCarthy
Vital Info
I’d like the next…
I would kill for a friendship story as beautifully executed as Gabrielle Zevin’s TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, which was a note-perfect novel!
My favorites include…
My favorite books ever since high school have been SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE and SONG OF SOLOMON.
Others I have loved of late (in no particular order):
A WISH IN THE DARK – Christine Soontornvat
THE UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS – Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
THE CITY WE BECAME – N. K. Jemisin
WRITERS AND LOVERS – Lily King
GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER – Bernardine Evaristo
NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC – Kevin Wilson
LUSTER – Raven Leilani
SHUGGIE BAIN – Douglas Stuart
JOAN IS OKAY – Weike Wang
THE SENTENCE – Louise Erdrich
TRUST – Hernan Diaz
TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW – Gabrielle Zevin
STAY TRUE – Hua Hsu
Favorite Movies:
Parasite
Eighth Grade
Boyhood
Get Out
The Favorite
The Lobster
Bring It On
Clue
Leaving Las Vegas
All About Eve
Rebecca
Up
Ratatouille
Spirited Away
Moonlight
Mad Max: Fury Road
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
Emily the Criminal
Fire Island
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Good Luck to You Leo Grande
Pearl
The Woman King
Barbarian
Bros
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Favorite TV:
Succession
Insecure
Abbott Elementary
The Traitors
Severance
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Top Chef
BoJack Horseman
