In a memo this morning, Mitzi Angel, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, informed the staff that the publisher is closing the MCD publishing program. As a result of the closure, MCD SVP and publisher Sean McDonald will leave FSG April 15.

MCD was launched in 2016 and was the brainchild of then FSG publisher and president Jonathan Galassi. MCD’s goal was "to create a space to publish work and experiment with publishing styles, forms, and genres that are at the edges of FSG’s traditions," Galassi told PW at the time of the launch. But times have changed in the publishing industry and in her memo, Angel wrote that due to “the financial realities” of the industry, FSG has decided to “redirect our attention to FSG’s core programming under the FSG umbrella.” That lineup now includes AUWA Books—which was launched by McDonald in March 2023 under the direction of Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, the drummer and joint frontman for the Roots—FSG Originals, Picador, Quanta Books, and the newly-revived North Point Press.

Under McDonald, a respected editor and publisher who started as VP, executive editor at FSG in 2010, MCD published an eclectic range of bestselling and prize-winning books in fiction and nonfiction. Among the nonfiction titles are Mamba Mentality by Kobe Bryant, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls, and, Hip-Hop is History by Questlove. Fiction titles included The Southern Reach series by Jeff VanderMeer and Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn.

Angel wrote that despite the MCD closure, “FSG remains deeply committed to adventure; to publishing a wide variety of unexpected, exhilarating and thought-provoking books across a range of categories and genres.”

All spring 2026 MCD books will remain under the imprint name, but beginning this fall all new titles will be published as FSG books, a spokesperson said. FSG also plans to begin transitioning all newly published paperbacks and paperback reprints to Picador, rather than continuing with the previous MCD/Picador approach, the spokesperson added.

On the MCD personnel front, Benjamin Brooks, associate editor, will report to Jackson Howard, executive editor. Howard will continue to report to Jenna Johnson, FSG editor-in-chief.