Sean McDonald

Sean McDonald is an American book editor, serving as executive editor and vice president of Farrar, Straus and Giroux and publisher of its experimental imprint, MCD/FSG, prior to the imprint's closure in April 2026.

Career Authors he has edited include Sloane Crosley, Junot Díaz, Nuruddin Farah, James Frey, Gorillaz, Nicola Griffith, Aleksandar Hemon, John Hodgman, Steven Berlin Johnson, Walter Mosley, Tyler Perry, Erik Reece, David Rees, the RZA, George Saunders, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Hector Tobar, and Ellen Ullman.

Prior to FSG, he worked as an Executive Editor and Vice President of Riverhead Books and before that at Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, most notably as editor of James Frey's controversial bestselling memoir A Million Little Pieces.

Awards In 2003, he was named "It" editor of the year by Entertainment Weekly and a "Power Punk" (influential New Yorkers under 35) by the New York Observer. In 2005 he was named a "Young Turk" of publishing by Publishers Weekly.