Amanda Uhle

Amanda Uhle is the author of Destroy This House, an Elle magazine best book of the year, shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. In poignant prose, her memoir tells the unbelievable story of her idiosyncratic Midwestern family. The story suggests that maybe the way we withstand even the most difficult family members is with a huge dose of humor and an even bigger dose of love. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Politico, Oprah Daily, The Boston Globe and elsewhere.

She is the Executive Director and Publisher of McSweeney’s, known for its award-winning quarterly literary journal, humor website and eclectic book publishing program, along with The Believer and Illustoria, an art and storytelling magazine for young readers. She is co-founder, with Dave Eggers, of The International Congress of Youth Voices and co-editor of the I, Witness series of first-person stories by youth activists, published by Norton. She’s the occasional host of the author interview radio program and podcast, Living Writers. For more than 11 years, Uhle was executive director of 826michigan, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center for school-aged students in the Detroit area.

Amanda is deeply involved with numerous youth writing organizations, as documented in Unnecessarily Beautiful Spaces for Young Minds on Fire, and serves on the board of Young Authors Greenhouse in Louisville, Kentucky, Art + Water in San Francisco, and Three Part Harmony Farm in Brandywine, Maryland.

She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband and son.