new book august 19, 2025

How to Be a Saint

Think you have what it takes to be a saint? Lucky for you, thousands of souls have paved the way to heaven—creating a clear formula for getting the job done while also leaving a rich, disturbing history behind them. And in just five easy-ish steps, you can learn how to secure your own halo!

How to Be a Saint is a compulsively readable and endlessly entertaining ride through Catholicism for anyone who enjoys their history with a side of comedy. From flying friars to severed heads, this book explores the wild lives (and deaths) of saints and pulls the curtain back on the oddest quirks of religious doctrine.

Whether you’re a lifelong Catholic or a weird-history enthusiast, How to Be a Saint is your ultimate guide to understanding the hilarious, fascinating, and shockingly true history of sainthood.

  • "Kate Sidley is one of the sharpest, funniest people I've ever been lucky enough to know and this book somehow manages to be as sharp and funny as she is. Weird. Thanks to Kate from a fellow Catholic for all the laughs and for the very helpful advice on how to get past heaven's airtight security system."

    Brian Stack, writer, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Conan O'Brien

  • "If you are aspiring towards canonization, Kate Sidley's How To Become A Saint is the one book you must read. The second is probably the Bible, but it isn't as funny. Sidley mines the humor found in theology, as she covers everything from the heroic virtues to different kinds of halos. This is a work that is sure to appeal to both the devout and those who definitely at least intend to go to church on Christmas and Easter."

    Jennifer Wright, author of Glitz, Glam and a Damn Good TIme: How Mamie Fish, Queen of the Gilded Age, Partied Her Way To Power.

  • "Kate Sidley brings the humor of a tenured late-night comedy writer and the repression of a lifelong Catholic to this consecrated guide for anyone interested in the cheat codes to Heaven.... If you want to piss the Devil off, buy this book!"

    Nicole Conlan, writer, The Daily Show

Hi! I'm
Kate Sidley

I'm a WGA Award and Peabody Award-winning, Emmy-nominated comedy writer and performer who currently writes for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. My first book, How to Be a Saint, comes out August 19, 2025. You can pre-order now at the link above!

Beyond television, my work can be found in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Reductress, and Someecards. I also wrote for the 69th Emmy Awards, if you enjoy going back and watching award shows from 2017!

I hold a M.A. in Theatre History and Criticism from Brooklyn College and a third of a Ph.D. (so just the P) in Theatre from CUNY Graduate Center. I'm also an alum of the NBC Late Night Writers Workshop, Baldwin Wallace University, a co-founder of Sea Tea Improv in Hartford, CT, and a proud returned Peace Corps volunteer.

Agent: Jonathan Levy, UTA

Literary Agent: Kate Mack, Aevitas Creative Management

Managers: Maggie Haskins and Casey Neumeier, Artists First