David McGlynn’s latest novel, Liberal Arts, will appear in October of 2026. His previous books include Everything We Could Do, One Day You'll Thank Me: Lessons from an Unexpected Fatherhood, A Door in the Ocean, and The End of the Straight and Narrow.
His writing appears in The New York Times, Washington Post, The American Scholar, Men’s Health, Real Simple, Parents, O., The Oprah Magazine, Best American Sports Writing, and numerous literary journals. Four of his essays have been named Distinguished Essays in Best American Essays and Best American Non-Required Reading. He’s appeared on radio and TV programs around the country and his work has been reviewed on National Public Radio’s Fresh Air.
In addition to his books, David’s a columnist for and frequent contributor to Swimmer magazine. A nonfiction book, The Channel: The History, Science, and Insanity of the World’s Most Famous Swim, is coming in 2028. He teaches at Lawrence University and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
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“In its parts and as a whole, Liberal Arts is fantastic: a beautifully written and suspenseful fiction that tracks its characters to unexpected places. Extremely funny, often harrowing, and full of surprises, it invites us to connect with people who’ve lost or risk losing status or identity. David McGlynn is a masterful writer. This is life in a college town in all its comedy, awkwardness, outright terror, and—sometimes— joy. It belongs with the best of our campus fictions, using a small place to show us something big. A book of entanglements you can’t look away from.” — Sarah Braunstein, author of Bad Animals