Audrey Clare Farley

If it's nonfiction, feel free to query!

I'm hoping to expand into fiction soon, but I'm not quite there yet!

Also looking for stylish nonfiction in the vein of Alex Marzano-Lesnevish's The Fact of a Body, Maggie's Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful, and Matthew Zapruder's The Story of a Poem.

My dream project would be MILDRED, a biography of Pope Leo's mother. (I'm generally fascinated by the Catholic Church, which I find to be both gothic and life-giving.) A favorite book is Skinfolk by Matthew Pratt Guterl.

I am especially looking for essay collections and cultural criticism that combat MAGA and AI culture by inviting readers to wonder, dream, and build a culture of encounter. At a time of scale, spectacle, and predictability, I like stories that are quiet, surprising, strange, and unruly. #MSWL

Hello Writers! I am a new agent at Hyponymous Literary, looking for manuscripts that ask questions and show deep curiosity about their subject. I admire writers who make space for tension and who see the texture in the world, including in other people. #MSWL manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/au...

Hello Friends! Welcome to #MSWL Day 2026! 🎉

This is our second ever #MSWL Day on Bluesky. We’re happy you’re here!

You can, as of TODAY, search Bluesky and ManuscriptWishList.com posts at once: manuscriptwishlist.com/smart-search. All posts are verified by a human who works in publishing. ☕

"Against Innocence: Undoing and Remaking the World"
Miriam Ticktin
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

These Watery Works Offer Sharks, Thrills and Magic

My first piece for the @nytimes.com Book Review considers two middle grade novels which are distinct in scope and motivation but aligned in their depictions of rites of passage achieved through the recognition of adult solipsism and corruption.

Here’s a gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/b...

Man accused of murdering priest is ‘Trump fan who wants to make church great again’ Gary Hermesch, charged with first degree murder over the fatal shooting of Father Arul Sarasala, reportedly wrote to his local paper in praise of the president

Reminder that a MAGA supporter who wanted to “make the Church great again” shot and killed a priest back in April and people just seem to have forgotten about it.

“Not *those* lives.”

“Many Americans know someone who is trans or who has a transgender loved one and wants them to be treated with kindness.” Please walk though my son’s middle school and listen to the slurs they hurl at their trans peers.

Contributor: In an era that celebrates cruelty, embrace subversive kindness Americans were once revolted by the aesthetics of fascism, but many now appear to be entertained.

"Pope Francis put it poetically when he wrote that we must resist 'the temptation to build a culture of walls'...for those 'who raise walls will end up as slaves within the very walls they have built.'" www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Joe Biden Is the Least of Democrats’ Problems Some commentators say the former president’s age and acuity will be a litmus test for 2028 candidates. They are embarrassingly wrong.

I wrote about 2028 litmus tests

newrepublic.com/post/195644/...

The challenges facing the first-ever American pope The world's 1.4 billion Catholics have a new pope, Leo XIV. But the church he now leads is far from unified. What does the global Catholic church want from a new pope -- and can he deliver it?

Here's the link to my discussion from "On Point" at @npr.org today about the Global Catholic church with a side bar on how JD Vance knows evangelical theology, but not Catholic theology.
www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025...

And yet, it's a poor way to defend democracy when we insist somebody should've saved the voters from themselves.

The Grand Spectacle of Pope Week Robert Francis Prevost’s election to the papacy has captivated audiences at the Vatican and online alike. How did the Pope become a pop-cultural symbol?

"What many of us want is a sense of leadership that is actually moral at the base. That's why Pope Francis had so many admirers who were not Catholic, and that's why it was so moving...so crazily radical...to hear Pope Leo begin with...'peace be with all of you.'"
www.newyorker.com/podcast/crit...

Pope Leo XIV calls for peace in Ukraine, a Gaza ceasefire and release of hostages in Sunday appeal Pope Leo XIV has called for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza with the release of hostages and delivery of humanitarian aid in his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff.

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV calls for peace in Ukraine, a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza in his first Sunday noon appeal.

In retrospect, it really seems like this dynamic did, in fact, matter.

Totally get those who argued conclaves are more complicated than simple math (and Leo’s election, a shocker, proves as much), but kinda seems like this was a major factor after all. religionnews.com/2025/04/21/t...

What a joy to speak about Pope Leo XIV on @cnn.com's The Lead with @jaketapper.bsky.social this evening! Jake surprised me by adding a wonderful plug for my book Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor. See the clip on my Dawn Patrol blog: dawneden.blogspot.com/2025/05/i-sp...

It goes both ways!

Pope Francis, groundbreaking Jesuit pontiff, dies aged 88 Death of 267th head of Catholic church triggers period of global mourning and Vatican conclave of cardinals to elect successor

In March 2013, I was at the gym doing squats when my friend Susan (a Muslim) texted me to tell me the new pope was a Jesuit. I told her she must mean Jesuit-educated. She said I was the incorrect one.

How wrong I was, and what an incredible pope he was.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Praise God for the life & ministry of Francis.

When he was announced in 2013 then-Abp Wilton Gregory, giving analysis on ABC, wept at hearing "Bergoglio." The anchor said, you seem to know something we don't.

Abp Gregory said, "You don't know what you just got."

We do now. Rest, Holy Father.

I have chosen a day within the coming week to skip a meal so I can fast and pray for the safe return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to his wife, their 5-year-old child, & his two stepchildren. Here is a link to a Google Form I have created to help you do the same: forms.gle/MwUkUWJGfDeo... (1 of 3)

Guest column | Words aren’t enough to describe grief, but they can still be a refuge For all its agonies and loneliness, grief continually asserts itself as a creative force.

My latest piece for @washingtonpost.com's Book World is an essay on grief literature, drawing significantly on Lauren Markham's Immemorial (a beautiful book), with some forays into Roland Barthes, and a bit about a tree that I think might remember my late mother.

Here's a gift link: wapo.st/4cqRvrD

The Catholics Who Have to Worship Somewhere Else How the Latin Mass split the Church

The great tragedy of my life was to have been catechized by twenty-somethings (charismatics) so hostile to Vatican II, so ignorant about "tradition," and so sure of their persecution. I feel sorry for the children. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Cheap eggs, the motherfreaking price of "cheap eggs"...

Oh? 👀

'Segregated facilities' are no longer explicitly banned in federal contracts The Trump administration cut a clause from federal contracting rules that had been on the books since the 1960s: Companies are no longer explicitly prohibited from having segregated facilities.

A few weeks ago, I argued in the Post that the Trump administration was ushering in a new era of re-segregation.

Now, here we are.

www.npr.org/sections/sho...