Samuel Ashworth

THE DEATH AND LIFE OF AUGUST SWEENEY, from @SFWP in 2025. NYT-bestselling ghostwriter. Guy @barrelhouse, prof @ GWU. Rep: @AevitasCreative & CAA. Swamp Dad.

[Samuel Ashworth @SamuelAshworth]

Ten years ago I had a crazy idea for a novel. Today, that novel is available for preorder. It’s about fame, food, and forensics, and I can solemnly promise that reading it will ease your fear of death.

Preorder here: The Death and Life of August Sweeney https://t.co/vzmYcDG3dA

[Ishaan Tharoor @ishaantharoor]

This week's @NewYorker column: On how you can read the American Revolution as a sideshow in a far greater imperial drama and why the Founding Fathers were obsessed with Hyder Ali, Sultan of Mysore

[amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17]

Rapidly approaching the point it is just safest to never talk to strange men wearing sunglasses. No directions, no friendly chit chat, nothing.

[SFWP @SFWP]

Happy #TBThursday to @SamuelAshworth's article "Today’s writers are too chummy. They should start brawling again," in the @washingtonpost! https://t.co/XFekMYY64j

Afterwards, treat yourself to THE DEATH AND LIFE OF AUGUST SWEENEY right here: https://t.co/UuOb9bYy8U

[SFWP @SFWP]

It's time to sit back and relax with THE DEATH AND LIFE OF AUGUST SWEENEY by @SamuelAshworth! https://t.co/vNZHhiq9Uh

@AmazonKindle

[Ishaan Tharoor @ishaantharoor]

My latest weekly column in the @NewYorker, which has been dubbed "Global Notes"—so long WorldView:

On the day the World Cup begins, I wrote about the undeniable gloom that surrounds it, and how the Trump-shaped shadow over the tournament can still be dispelled.

[Samuel Ashworth @SamuelAshworth]

This wasn’t a concert it was an exorcism

[Ben Stiller @BenStiller]

The start of the comeback

[Ben Stiller @BenStiller]

The start of the comeback

[Ishaan Tharoor @ishaantharoor]

PERSONAL NEWS: I've joined the @NewYorker full-time as a global-affairs columnist, where I'll be writing a weekly essay on the world. It's a dream gig and I'm still pinching myself that I get to say all these incredible, talented journalists I've long admired are my colleagues!

[Lissa Warren @lissa_warren]

Is everyone hanging out w/o me? Yes, yes they are. If you're attending #AWP (alas, I'm not), stop by the @SFWP booth (#527-529) to meet Lissa Warren PR clients @zimmerman082 (US, AFTER), @SamuelAshworth (THE DEATH & LIFE OF AUGUST SWEENEY), & Lauren C. Johnson (THE WEST FACADE)!

[SFWP @SFWP]

If you're attending #AWP26 in Baltimore, MD, stop by booths #527 and #529 on 3/5 and 3/7 to meet @SamuelAshworth!

Check out his panel, "Is My Book Too Much?" on 3/5 from 10:35-11:50 AM EST w/ @poetic_moni, @darlavelle, & Catherine Dang! https://t.co/3K2Pk5nJo2

@awpwriter

[Samuel Ashworth @SamuelAshworth]

How can any letter so comprehensively detailing failures of leadership not end with the words “I resign?”

[Washington Post Communications @WashPostComms]

From @WashingtonPost Executive Editor @murraymatt:

Dear All,

As we shared in our live stream earlier, the company is taking actions today to place The Washington Post on a stronger footing and better position us in this rapidly changing era of new technologies and evolving user habits.

These moves include substantial newsroom reductions impacting nearly all news departments. For the immediate future, we will concentrate on areas that demonstrate authority, distinctiveness, and impact and that resonate with readers: politics, national affairs, people, power and trends; national security in DC and abroad; forces shaping the future including science, health, medicine, technology, climate, and business; journalism that empowers people to take action, from advice to wellness; revelatory investigations; and what’s capturing attention in culture, online, and in daily life.

We will meet with leaders in each department today and tomorrow to review the impacts on their teams.

Today’s news is painful. These are difficult actions. We are proud of, and grateful for, the many valued colleagues whose talents and passion have contributed to The Post over many years.

But we take them with clarity of purpose. The need has never been more urgent to reposition The Post. A more flexible, sustainable model will help us better navigate unprecedented volatility, competition, technological change, news-consumption habits, and cost pressure.

As you know, we have grappled with financial challenges for some time. They have affected us in multiple rounds of cost cuts and buyouts, along with periodic constraints on other kinds of spending.

We have concluded that the company’s structure is too rooted in a different era, when we were a dominant, local print product. This restructure will help to secure our future in service of our journalistic mission and provide us stability moving forward.

We are far from alone in reevaluating our model or rethinking how we operate. The ecosystem of news and information, on- and off-platform, is changing radically. News consumers enjoy more variety, voices, platforms, and options than ever before. In just the last five years, multiple startups—and even individuals—have created meaningful products that draw attention and generate impact at low cost.

Platforms like Search that shaped the previous era of digital news, and which once helped The Post thrive, are in serious decline. Our organic search has fallen by nearly half in the last three years. And we are still in the early days of AI-generated content, which is drastically reshaping user experiences and expectations.

We are producing much great journalism of which we can be proud. As we discuss every day in the news meeting, some of our best work attracts readers and generates subscriptions and engagement.

Unfortunately, some does not. Some areas, such as video, haven’t kept up with changes in how consumers get news and information. Significantly, our daily story output has substantially fallen in the last five years. And even as we produce much excellent work, we too often write from one perspective, for one slice of the audience.

If we are to thrive, not just endure, we must reinvent our journalism and our business model with renewed ambition. We already have taken important and, in some cases, long overdue steps toward reinvention—creating the Print desk, transforming digital workflows, and embedding Audience Strategy editors in every department. Today’s moves will put us in position to find and develop better ways to connect Post journalism to news consumers in the ways they want it.

From this foundation, we aim to build on what is working, and grow with discipline and intent, to experiment, to measure and deepen what resonates with customers.

We can’t be everything to everyone. But we must be indispensable where we compete. That means continually asking why a story matters, who it serves and how it gives people a clearer understanding of the world and an advantage in navigating it.

Some of you have heard me ask how we can shrink the gap between some of what we create in our newsroom during the day and what we — and our children, families, and friends — consume at night.

Today’s actions are about addressing those questions, forcefully, to reinvent The Washington Post for this new era. This work is difficult, but it is essential. The Post is a necessary institution, and it must remain relevant.

Even amid challenges, The Washington Post retains great strengths. We have a deep pool of talented journalists and leaders, strong standards, institutional backing, a proud legacy, and millions of customers.

Most important, our central purpose remains as it ever was: To produce riveting and distinct journalism of the highest caliber that breaks news, explains the world with authority and fairness, empowers people with knowledge, and helps them live better-informed lives.

Matt

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

to @wapo international journalists:
@eurasiagroup is hiring and committed to understanding global affairs without fear or favor.

[Dan Cluchey @dancluchey]

WorldView became indispensible reading for me — I haven't found a better source for learning about & grappling with global events. A big *go fuck yourself* to the idiots whose head-spinning shortsightedness and parched understanding of news is speeding our society down the drain.

[Ishaan Tharoor @ishaantharoor]

I have been laid off today from the @washingtonpost, along with most of the International staff and so many other wonderful colleagues. I’m heartbroken for our newsroom and especially for the peerless journalists who served the Post internationally — editors and correspondents who have been my friends and collaborators for almost 12 years. It’s been an honor to work with them.

I launched the WorldView column in January 2017 to help readers better understand the world and America’s place in it and I’m grateful for the half a million loyal subscribers who tuned into the column several times a week over the years.

[Benjy Sarlin @BenjySarlin]

Yeah when I think about what's essential to my life it just might include books, sports, what's happening on the street I live, and whether we're going to war

[Benjy Sarlin @BenjySarlin]

Book Section was my first read every Sunday. Added so much to the paper’s brand, was a great fit for (what should be) their target audience and mission. Despicable.

[Samuel Ashworth @SamuelAshworth]

@washheights44 @JessZafarris I appreciate it dogg!

[Samuel Ashworth @SamuelAshworth]

In other words working parents can absolutely go fuck themselves

[Mayor Muriel Bowser @MayorBowser]

Updates for Wednesday, January 28:

•⁠ ⁠DCPS will be closed
•⁠ ⁠DC Gov will open at 10AM

Let's keep working together—give our plows space on the roads, continue safety precautions, and be a good neighbor.

[Lissa Warren @lissa_warren]

Listen to @SamuelAshworth, author of the novel THE DEATH AND LIFE OF AUGUST SWEENEY, on @deathsexmoney discussing why autopsies are on the decline and why it matters. @SFWP @Slate @WNYCStudios https://t.co/YYfFHcQdns

[Gerard DiPippo @gdp1985]

I was going to post a "top 10 books of 2025" thread but I'm lazy. (And let's be honest, you're not going to scroll through.) Instead, I'll highlight the best fiction I read in 2025: "The Death and Life of August Sweeney" by @SamuelAshworth. If you love food, read it.