About Jon Swihart

I am a writer and musician from Seattle.

If you're looking for Jon Swihart the painter or John Swihart, the guy who did the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack, then you've come to the wrong place. I'm terribly sorry. Please...just go.

So, what's there to read around here?

Fiction and essays, ranging from the thoughtful and poignant to the absurd and childish. This is a place where I try out different narrative techniques, explore difficult topics, and enjoy the craft of writing.

Humor is very important to me, and you'll find it in most of my writing. Every day, we're invited to take ourselves too seriously. Social media… the news… mindless careerism… all of it encourages us to indulge in our own pettiness and see the world around us as the villain in our story. Humor dispels these illusions, if only for a few moments.

Humor is the imperfect soul resonating with the imperfect world. It's the infection that penetrates our guarded exterior, corrupting our rigid, ideological immune response like some sort of metaphysical autoimmune disease or perhaps a hilarious cancer. Or maybe it’s ALS for your psyche. A plague, perhaps? Something like that.

Oh! How about a throbbing pustule of contemplation? That just feels right for some reason.

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Types of content

Short Fiction - Stories of a few thousand words.

Long Fiction - Longer reads of more than a few thousand words, but shorter than a novel.

Weird Fiction - Surreal and absurd stories, sometimes employing experimental writing techniques.

Essays & Nonfiction - My thoughts on real-world subjects.

Published Works - Links to my published works elsewhere.

How Often do I Post?

If you’re like me, your personal inbox is overflowing with notifications, political donation requests, and newsletters from every store you’ve ever visited.

My intention is not to add to the clutter.

Since I’m just starting, my posting schedule will be a bit of an experiment. Stories take a while to write and edit. For now, I’m aiming for twice a month. If that’s sustainable, we’ll see about once per week.

Also, each topic is technically its own newsletter, so you can opt-out of the stuff you don’t want.

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There’s nothing behind the paywall (for now). You can read everything.

I promise I won’t spam your inbox. It’s free and it would mean a lot to me.

Subscribe to JON SWIHART WRITES

Short fiction, speculative satire, humor, and essays about life, love, despair, and hope. Often dark, sometimes absurd. Black Mirror + Hitchhiker’s + Catch-22 + Leonora Carrington

People

Writer and musician from Seattle.