Northwestern Faculty Reading

Join us at the Book Cellar to celebrate the works of Northwestern University's MFA faculty!

About the Authors:

John McCarthy is the author of three collections of poetry, including Scared Violent Like Horses (Milkweed Editions, 2019), which won the Jake Adam York Prize, and This Brutal Vanishing (Texas Review Press, 2028). His work has appeared in 32 Poems, Best New Poets, Gettysburg Review, and North American Review. John received his MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University and the Managing Editor of RHINO Poetry. 

Naeem Murr is the author of three previous novels: The Boy, a New York Times Notable Book, The Genius of the Sea, and The Perfect Man, which was awarded the Commonwealth Writersʼ Prize for the Best Book of Europe and South Asia, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His new novel, Every Exit Brings You Home, was published by W.W. Norton in February 2026. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, among his awards are a Pushcart Prize, a Lannan Residency Fellowship, a PEN Beyond Margins Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Chicago and teaches at Northwestern University.

Donna Seaman is Editor-in-Chief and Adult Books Editor for Booklist. A recipient of the Louis Shores Award for Excellence in Book Reviewing and the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award, Seaman is on the Content Leadership Team for the American Writers Museum and an adjunct creative writing professor for Northwestern University. Seaman’s author interviews are collected in Writers on the Air: Conversations About Books, and she is the author of Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists and River of Books: A Life in Reading.

James Stewart III is a Black writer and arts organizer from Chicago. His debut novel, Defiant Acts (Acre Books, 2025), was named one of Chicago Magazine’s 2025 “Summer’s Required Reading" picks. He was also named to Newcity’s 2025 Lit 50 list, recognizing influential voices in Chicago’s literary culture. His writing has appeared in journals including Lampblack, The Forge, and Midwest Review. Additionally, he is a co-founder of the reading series and artist collective Exhibit B. Stewart holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA from North Central College. He lives with his wife and daughter at the end of DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

Rachel Swearingen is the author of How to Walk on Water and Other Stories, winner of the New American Fiction Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in VICE, The Missouri Review, Kenyon Review, Off Assignment, Agni, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize in Fiction, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and Mississippi Review Prize in Fiction. She has taught for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as Northwestern.