M. Shaw – writer, vagabond, explorer of dark places
I’m the author of the Wonderland Book Award winning One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve and the short story collection All Your Friends Are Here, which includes the Shirley Jackson Award finalist “Ready Player (n+1).” I went to Clarion in 2019 as part of the lovely “Killer Bees” class, and was once an organizer of the Denver Mercury Poetry Slam, the longest-running regular slam night in North America. Very early in my career, Fangoria once said that my work “should not be as compelling a read as it was.”
I live in a camper van with my cat Mutiny and have no permanent residence. We go around mostly North America, hopping between artist residencies, workstays, and the occasional hidden corner of everything, just to get away from all the noise. I’m very queer (pansexual, aromantic, transgender, nonmonogamous), and I navigate the world through that lens, as well as that of my autism and PTSD, my long and revelatory journey of personal healing, and the contrast between my desire to see a better world and my lack of attachment to much of anything. I am unlikely to live a very long life due to a hereditary stroke disorder, but I’ve made it this far.
In past phases of my life, I worked in alternative transportation, especially municipal bike share services before the industry enshittified. I was a labor organizer for a short time. I was a burlesque dancer for a longer time. I was a slam poet, for the few years that it made sense for me to be. I worked in publishing off and on. I’ve seen and done quite a few things that quite a few people would refuse to believe are possible, which I suppose makes me some kind of occultist or witch or vampire hunter or something.
At any given time, I am working on way too many writing projects.