Mallory Smart
@mallorysmart
Neurotic Chicago-based writer, editor-in-chief of Maudlin House, podcaster, and doer of many odd things.
New episode of Textual Healing is live. Claire Vaye Watkins and I sat down to talk about Yellow Pine, but like my favorite conversations, we didn’t stay there for long. Give it a listen wherever you get your podcasts…🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/7FEZ...
This story escalated. "Fatal Attraction" is now live at Bulb Region... bulbregion.com/Fatal-Attrac...
Poetry, pizza debates, puppets, and Lake Michigan. Beach Poets was an experience. zonamotel.substack.com/p/dispatch-b...
One more from yesterday. Thanks to filmmaker John McNaughton for grabbing this during my conversation with Dmitry Samarov…
A good night for Faulkner. Thanks to everyone who came out for Dmitry Samarov’s new Maudlin Classics edition of The Sound and the Fury…
It’s weird how certain TV shows permanently change your drink order. Better Call Saul did this to me…
I went back to an abandoned railroad bridge I spent way too much time on in my early 20s and accidentally figured out where Book of David came from... New essay. malsmart.substack.com/p/it-all-sta...
The Belvidere Oasis has been standing above I-90 since 1959. I wrote a short horror story about it in my upcoming collection, Book of David, coming this October from House of Vlad. Preorder now: houseofvlad.bigcartel.com/product/book...
The Midwest is one of the last places where you can still stumble across playground equipment that hasn’t changed since the Clinton administration. Saw this today and had to do a double take…
Spotify: High Hopes 3000 National Weather Service: “Actually, lower those hopes.” 🇺🇸
Pretty cool to find out that “It’s Giving Final Girl,” originally published in Vol. 1 Brooklyn’s Sunday Stories, was longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50. www.wigleaf.com/2026longlist...
Strange people. Local legends. Bad decisions that keep them alive. BOOK OF DAVID. houseofvlad.bigcartel.com/product/book...
Behind the scenes of making the next Book of David trailer. Turns out “cinematic” mostly means chasing golden hour and hoping nobody asks why you’re filming on an abandoned railroad bridge…
New episode of Textual Healing. Scott Laudati and I set out to talk about Rainbow Road. Instead we talked about celebrity hotels, paparazzi, pizza, road trips, weird jobs, and writing. Honestly, I think we ended up exactly where we were supposed to. open.spotify.com/episode/0ZnJ...
This is one of those stories that gets stranger every 20 seconds. Scott Laudati on the new episode of Textual Healing. Tomorrow. 🎧
The sky: biblical. The group chat: “Anyone need anything from Aldi?”
The Midwest doesn’t ignore tornado warnings. We negotiate with them. open.substack.com/pub/malsmart...