Author Talk: Memoirist Amanda Uhle with Mary Alice Stephens In-Person
McSweeney's Executive Director Amanda Uhle presents a tender, heartbreaking, and hilarious memoir chronicling the challenges of growing up with a desperately scheming father, a mother plagued by an acute hoarding disorder, and parenting parents while seeking independence.
The Long family’s love was fierce, their lifestyle bizarre, and their deceptions countless. Once her parents were gone, Amanda Uhle realized she was closer to them than anyone else, yet she found herself utterly confounded by the lives they had led.
In Destroy This House, Amanda sets out to document her parents’ unbelievable exploits and her own hard-won escape into independence. With humor and tenderness, Uhle has crafted a heartfelt and utterly unique memoir, capturing the raucousness, pain, joy, and ultimately, the boundless love that exists between all parents and children.
Amanda Uhle is Executive Director and Publisher of McSweeney's, founded by Dave Eggers and known for its award-winning quarterly literary journal, humor website and eclectic book publishing program, along with magazines The Believer and Illustoria. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Politico Magazine, Newsweek, ThinkProgress, The Boston Globe, and Oprah Daily. Her memoir, Destroy This House, was an Elle magazine best book of 2025.
Award-winning author Mary Alice Stephens shares her raw, funny, and ultimately inspiring journey from alcohol-fueled chaos to clarity, connection, and self-acceptance in her instant best-seller, Uncorked: A Memoir of Letting Go and Starting Over. Uncorked was an Amazon #1 new release in alcoholism recovery, an Amazon best-seller in midlife self-help, and a 2026 PenCraft Best Book Award Winner in Inspirational Nonfiction. Mary, a former television writer-producer for HGTV, Food Network, and other media outlets, earned her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Dominican University of California and lives in Marin County, California.
Books will be for sale at this program from the Friends of the Mill Valley Library.
Photo by Melanie Maxwell.
- Date:
- Wednesday, April 15, 2026
- Time:
- 6:30pm - 7:30pm
- Time Zone:
- Pacific Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Creekside Room
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- In Person Literary > Author Talk
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