Ian Schwartz

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Brawling street gangs pepper-spraying each other’s eyes off the Galata Bridge. I watched machine gun fire glitter in the dark in the deserts of Kurdistan. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain…

I was born in Brooklyn, mostly raised in Maine, and educated at Hampshire College, where I studied European literature. I graduated into the Long Depression in 2009, traveling to South Korea to each English for eight years. Thanks to Korea, I met my wife, we had two kids, and we even paid off my student debt. We returned to the USA in 2017.

I’ve been writing all my life, but my other jobs include: dog poop picker-upper, assistant professor, copyeditor, gardener, dishwasher, teacher, and elected official. Gertrude Berg is my great-grandmother; she was pretty famous in the 1950s. I play West African guitar, run marathons, and raise children.

When it comes to books, I’ve always loved the classics: Tolstoy, Flaubert, Shakespeare, and Ovid, but also Tolkien, Frank Herbert, and many others. I love history, too—books by authors like Silvia Federici, Hellen Meiksins Wood, Helena Sheehan, and CLR James. I'm also extremely interested in determining the price of a roll of linen.