What is the title of your latest release?
IMMERSIONS
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
IMMERSIONS is about a young woman who is convinced something went horribly wrong in her older sister’s marriage. When her sister’s ex-husband comes back to town, she seeks him out, trying to find answers—and ends up getting pulled into a dangerous, thrilling intimacy with him.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I tend to write about New York, because that’s where I live. But I always knew that partway through the book, there would be a shift to someplace remote. About ten years ago, I did a residency on Fishers Island, and the weird specificity of that place really haunted me. So when I imagined a place where my hero and heroine would be isolated, that island came to mind.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Yes, definitely. Frances is young, but she’s perceptive. If we were in school together, I’d like to hang out with her after a big party and get her take on everyone.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Naive, gifted, sensitive.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
It’s hard to adapt a fairy tale! I thought it would be easy, because hey—no need to think of a plot! But finding a way to use the fairy tale “Bluebeard”, rather than rigidly sticking to all its twists and turns, took me a long time.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
A hundred percent, edit as I draft. I can’t move forward until I trust the language on the page. Solid language is like solid ground under my feet. It allows me to keep walking forward into the wildness of the draft.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I don’t see the point of eating dessert unless it involves chocolate.
Describe your writing space/office!
About five years ago, my uncle, a gifted carpenter, designed a custom writing desk for me. It’s beautiful, stained a deep cherry red, with legs shaped like an upside down Y. I push this desk beneath a window in my apartment overlooking trees and a red shingled roof. On the windowsill there are some sea shells and private talismans scattered amid a jade plant and succulents.
Who is an author you admire?
Angela Carter. She’s the patron saint of IMMERSIONS. She’s so campy, so voluptuous, so sexy and funny and over the top. And her retellings of classic European fairy tales are the most intelligent ones I know.
Is there a book that changed your life?
When I was in third grade, I read Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I’m not even sure how I did it, or how much I understood. But when I got to the description of Fantine’s suffering, I was so horrified that I told my parents I didn’t deserve to sleep in a bed. For a few nights at least, I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor. I was probably always going to become an overly sensitive adult, but that book really woke me up to the suffering that goes on all around us.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I first talked to Masie Cochran, the editor of IMMERSIONS and editorial director of Tin House/Zando, on a rainy windy Wednesday afternoon in autumn. I can remember going out to the back porch of my little red house—I was living in Ohio at the time—and grinning crazily up at the trees afterwards.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
“Literary fiction” is such a capacious category that it runs the risk of not meaning anything, but I’d have to say “literary fiction.” Unless there’s something interesting going on with the language or the characters, it’s hard to keep my attention.
What’s your favorite movie?
Maybe this is surprising for someone who just wrote a Gothic romance, but I’d have to say When Harry Met Sally.
What is your favorite season?
I like summer best in theory, but lately summer has felt like a hot slog! So I’d have to say fall. The crisp air makes me feel like I’m sparkling.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
For a few years now, I’ve always taken a long walk on my birthday. Then, in the evening, dinner out or with loved ones is best. I’m not into big parties; I like something a bit more contemplative.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
If you like fairy tales, Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou is mind-blowing. It put the shivers up my spine. If you want something a bit more calm, but super-sharp about human nature, I’d recommend Fonseca by Jessica Francis Kane, which imagines a trip Penelope Fitzgerald took to Mexico to try to claim a fortune.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Maybe Mediterranean, at least these days? Olive oil and salt makes anything taste good.
What do you do when you have free time?
I am incredibly boring in my habits. I run the same loop in Prospect Park over and over again, and curl up on my couch with a book. A long chat with a friend over food is also good, or cooking with my partner.
What can readers expect from you next?
I like to keep my cards pretty close to my chest, but I will say I’ve been mulling over how to channel my ballet obsession into a non-fiction book.
A Most Anticipated Book of 2026 from LitHub
Taut and spellbinding, Immersions follows the aftermath of a celebrated dancer’s abrupt decision to quit her company and join an enclosed convent in France, and her younger sister’s obsessive conviction that her sister’s ex-husband is responsible.
Frances’s older sister Charley was a star of the modern dance world. But just as she was ascending, she fell in love with Johnny, an enigmatic trust fund artist, and married him. A few years into their turbulent marriage, Charley mysteriously leaves her dance company and joins an enclosed convent in Provence. Much to the shock of her family, she changes her name to Sister Anne and cuts off contact with the outside world.
Frances, a dancer herself, grew up in the shadow of her brilliant sister and is suddenly unmoored without her. From their first uneasy meeting, Frances has distrusted Johnny. Now, she is certain he had something to do with her sister’s abrupt abandonment of her art and family. When Frances discovers that Johnny has returned to New York, she reaches out to him, looking for answers and seeking confrontation. The two plunge into an ambiguous intimacy—diving ever deeper, as each tries to unlock the other's secrets. A slender and twisted tale of sexual coming-of-age and of the deep bonds of lust and loyalty, Immersions asks how we are made—and unmade—by desire.
Romance Suspense [ Zando, On Sale: May 5, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9781963108705 / eISBN: 9781963108781 ]
Kyle McCarthy’s work has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2017, American Short Fiction, the Harvard Review, Southwest Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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