I started my Substack in order to create a more open, honest, authentic creative space. Too often in traditional publishing and literary magazines nowadays I feel the quality has suffered in exchange for political ideology. Quality is what matters. If your writing is powerful—even if it offends people—it should be published. Sensitive readers know that art has always been, and always will be, transgressive.
For my more personal, artistic writing check out my other stack, The Incompatibility of Being Alive.
*Please do consider becoming a paid subscriber ($5/month) or $40/year.
I leave you with my favorite Stephen King quote from “On Writing”: “If you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.”
Please also consider RECOMMENDING Sincere American Writing on your own stack. It helps. And re-stack, shoutout, spread the word!
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Bio:
I am a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer, former literary agent’s assistant and freelance book editor. My fiction has been published in: The New Guard; Concho River Review; Adelaide Literary Magazine; Bethlehem Writers’ Roundtable; Fiction Magazines; Tincture; and much more. My articles have been included in Writers’ Digest, Writer Unboxed, Creative Penn, MASH, Books & Buzz; and more. I edited White American Youth, a memoir by Christian Picciolini, a former neo Nazi who changed his life (Hachette, Dec 26, 2017) as well as Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism (Hachette Feb 2020). Christian’s MSNBC TV docu-series is airing now (Breaking Hate). I also edited Deborah Holt Larkin’s “A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California's Most Notorious Killers.”
In 2018 I was on the cover of Books & Buzz Magazine. My writing/editing website is www.michaelmohrwriter.com.
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Books I edited (see my website above for many more):
Christian Picciolini’s “White American Youth” (memoir)
Christian Picciolini’s “Breaking Hate” (memoir)
Rachel Rose’s “The Octopus Has Three Hearts” (story collection)
Gene Desrochers’ “Sweet Paradise” (thriller novel)
Gini Grossenbacher’s “Madame in Silk” (historical fiction)
Michael Dunn’s “Anywhere but Schuylkill” (historical fiction)
My Writing:
What’s the Point of Substack? Quality? Making Money? Community?
Why I signed the Pro Free Speech Letter on Substack
Pushcart Prize-nominated writer for my short story “American Freaks”
My NYC memoir about living in East Harlem during Covid, “Two Years in New York”
My prison suspense novel, “The Grim Room”
Thoughts on Nothing (Or ‘Cigarettes’)
Making a Living as a Writer and Book Editor
Sobriety and Wokeism are Diametrically Opposed to Each Other
