Why subscribe?
“Mick is doing for Chicago what James Joyce did for Dublin. He has the kind of voice I would follow anywhere. His tales of the down-and-out, the dispossessed and hardscrabble working class are packed with dark humor and hard-fought wisdom - the kind of stories that have to be lived to be written. And the man’s got heart for days.… Some of the best writing on Substack, bar none.”
- Jerry Stahl - author of Nein, Nein, Nein!
“What I love about Mick’s writing is he never wastes words. Also his stories are always brutal funny and have a compassion even for the people that did you wrong!”
“With each new syllable Mick Betancourt commits to paper he further cements his tenure as America’s’ poet laureate of the Working Class. His work by turns will bust your gut from laughing or break your heart — often in the same paragraph. His is a singular voice that our country needs to hear right now.”
- Thomas Kelly - author of Empire Rising
“I am an American, Chicago born…” Those are the opening words of the Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie March. They could just as easily be the first sentence in the autobiography of my friend Mick Betancourt. I would add these qualities from two other Windy City heavyweights of pen and paper: the heart of Studs Terkel and the bullshit detector of Nelson Algren. We don’t read Betancourt to learn about Mick. We read him to learn about ourselves.”
Rafael Alvarez - author of Orlo & Leini tales.
“Mick writes the truth and tells it to you straight with strong imagery, stellar pacing and juicy details. He is wise and engaging and no bullshit. You’re in good hands with Mick.”
