Zona Motel is an online literary space for conversation, community, and independent literature.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Daily |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 622 | Founded | 2 years ago | Last Issue | 5 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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zonamotel.substack.comLatest Issues
CONVERSATION: John McNaughton talks with Dmitry Samarov about making art, TV, David Milch, and joining the carnival
All photographs courtesy of John McNaughton
I met filmmaker John McNaughton in 2007 or 2008. I’d been a fan since his first feature, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, premiered at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, where I worked at the time a...
CONVERSATION: SK Stringer talks with Alex Behr about the intersections of music, sex, and unconforming identity
I met Alex at Portland State University. She was the first person I bonded with in the fiction writing class I took before applying for the MFA program. As a reader, Alex was incredibly open; rather than tearing down writers’ sentences she...
GOSSIP: October 28, 2026
Oh you thought she was good? You thought she was good? 🫵🤣
Hi Zonads! Insanely to me, I’ve once again gotten outrageously sick. I didn’t really think you could get sick so soon after having just gotten sick but I’m not a scientist nor do...
COLUMN: A Central European Sense of Dread (The Projectionist #14)
I suppose if a territory is wedged in between Russia and the rest of the West, a discordant cloud of existential dread looming over the place seems rather unsurprising–oh, the vulnerability of small nations! The use of “wedged” here is apt...
REVIEW: You Won’t Get Free Of It by Rachel Aviv
The first time I read Rachel Aviv’s journalism, she had chosen a subject she rarely writes about—herself. In “Prologue: Rachel,” which kicks off her brilliant 2022 book Strangers to Ourselves, she details her childhood anorexia, hospital st...
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
Zona Motel is a brotherhood and web space that exists to support good literature.
Gossip Columnist at Zona Motel
As a member of an old Nigerian family, I write extensively on African traditional culture and the titled upper classes that preceded our modern government.
Emma Burger is the founder of the indie press, Gold Coast Editions. She is the author of two novels, Little Rich Kids (2025) and Spaghetti for Starving Girls (2021). She is an essays editor at Zona Motel and the interviews editor at Hobart.
I'm just some guy. You can find all of my work here: https://linktr.ee/ivangenc I run socials for ZONA MOTEL! 🐐 Catch us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zona.motel/
M. Randal O’Wain is the author of Meander Belt: family, loss, and coming of age in the working class and the short story collection Hallelujah Station. He teaches creative writing at UNC Chapel Hill.
I'm a Franco-American writer & translator. I wrote Teen Surf Goth (Metatron, 2015) and The Island (Shabby Doll House, 2024)
Greater Prairie-Chicken
writer, open mic host, wannabe comedian @nicolefersko
Author of I KEEP MY EXOSKELETONS TO MYSELF (Catapult, 2023), A SHARP ENDLESS NEED, and PERVERTS (Dial). jock. parent. sweatpants enthusiast. they/them.
Chicago-based writer, host of Neon Night Mic reading series, & publisher of Piżama Press. Posting one poem & prompt every Sunday.
Author of five books, most recently the novel IN THE SIGHT.
Adriana Keaton is the author of CIGS, (Chappy Doll House, 2026)
I live in Charleston, West Virginia, and try to maintain a creative life, personally and professionally. I'm also a contributing editor at Zona Motel.
Stephanie Yue Duhem (or Steff) is an Austin-based poet and occultist. Author of CATACLYSM MOVES ME I REGRET TO SAY (2025).
it's amazing that you're here. novelist, runner, south carolinian now set in new york.
Writer and poet. Astro-mythic excavator. Author of Turn to the Stars.
Journalist and writer
Author of North America: Two Travelogues. Work in Socrates on the Beach, Fortnightly Review, Chicago Review, and others.
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