Zona Motel is an online literary space for conversation, community, and independent literature.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Daily |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 562 | Founded | 2 years ago | Last Issue | 4 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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zonamotel.substack.comLatest Issues
ESSAY: The Book of Tonya: Reflections on Infidelity in David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The film Doctor Zhivago, a historical epic set in Russia during the Russian Revolution, has always deeply spoken to me. Based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Boris Pasternak, for which he won a Nobel Prize, Doctor Zhivago focuses on t...
COLUMN: Public and Private Portraits (Art on its Own Terms)
KMR/POTUS—public and private portraits by Dmitry Samarov
September 8th—October 5th
Zona Motel rejects algorithm-chasing and corporate publishing. To support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Rainbo Club, 1150 N Damen...
ESSAY: What I Learned About Writing When I Quit Drinking
It was 2023 and a loved one had just gone to rehab for alcoholism. I quit drinking in solidarity and started attending Al-Anon meetings, which share the same steps and traditions as AA but focus on helping the friends and family of people w...
ESSAY: The Autopsy Revealed the Cause of Death Was the Autopsy: Did AI hallucinate New York Mag’s Ross Barkan plagiarism scandal?
It’s hard to ignore a shit show when it happens to someone you know. You become another ghoul hunting blood at a car crash. You can’t look away.
The initial stories broke in May. Ross Barkan had been accused of plagiarism while writing fre...
GOSSIP: Week of August 31 + September Zoom
Total speculation, complete hearsay, unfounded rumors, etc.
SEPTEMBER SUBSCRIBER ZOOM SESSION
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
Zona Motel is a brotherhood and web space that exists to support good literature.
THE ONLY LIVING GIRL IN CHICAGO• Editor-in-Chief @MaudlinHouse \ud83d\udcda • Person who talks about music @PodHealing \ud83c\udfa7 • Horror movies @horrorpod666 \ud83c\udfa5
Head of Support at Substack. Author of the novel LOG OFF (Shabby Doll House, 2024). Interviews Editor at Zona Motel.
Nikki Volpicelli is writer, reader, and contributing editor @ 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 already apologized
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.
Poet. Author of the books Path of Totality and Dead Horse. Contributing editor (Reviews) for Zona Motel.
Charlene Elsby wrote Hexis, Affect, Psychros, Agyny, Musos, Letters to Jenny Just After She Died, and Bedlam. Her essays have appeared in Bustle Books and the LA Review of Books.
hello my name is juliet escoria and I am an Editor-in-Chief at Zona Motel! I also wrote these books: You Are the Snake (Soft Skull, 2024), Witch Hunt & Black Cloud (CLASH, 2023), and Juliet the Maniac (Melville House, 2019).
Books and audio recordings of writing released by Bread & Roses Press, Three One G, and the Numero Group.
Writing and things
Founding editor of Shabby Doll House and managing editor of Zona Motel. I also wrote some books.
Erin Dorney is the author of "Yes I Am Human I Know You Were Wondering" (Autofocus Books, 2025) and many zines.
Author of five books, most recently the novel IN THE SIGHT.
Co-editor-in-chief of Zona Motel and Hub City Shorts. I also write novels and other things
Gossip Columnist at Zona Motel
\ud83c\udf38 2 hawt new books: The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker, Semiotext(e). — Myth Lab: Theories of Plastic Love, Far West press. On Instagram I’m HelterSkelley . Band is Lawndale \ud83c\udf38
writer <3
NEW DARK coming Fall 2026 from Shabby Doll House.
Shane Jesse Christmass is the author of METH-DTF, The Sex Shops of Sherman Oaks, Latex, Texas, Xerox Over Manhattan and other books. He makes music with Snake Milker. Writing, art, noise: linktr.ee/sjxsjc
is from Michigan. He is the author of the chapbooks Colossal (2025), Plantain (2018), and the Latin translation project We, Romans (2015). joshboardman.com
M. Randal O'Wain is the author of Meander Belt and Hallelujah Station. He is co-editor of Hub City Shorts: anthologies of stories from each state in the south. He teaches at UNC Chapel Hill.
Florida Apologist. Red Bull Fiend.
i don’t feel like being bored so i court disaster —nila northSun
Greater Prairie-Chicken
Gene Kwak is the author of Go Home, Ricky! and he currently lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Oklahoma State University.
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