Stay informed with M. Allshouse's latest news

Stories rarely sit still for long. Here you'll find the latest from M. Allshouse: manuscripts finding their readers, old work being given new life, and whatever strange thing has started demanding attention next. Check back for new developments from behind the page.

A new piece is coming with PublicSource

September 2026

A new piece of my writing is making its way beyond my own platforms.

My guest commentary, The Arts Don’t Need More Rooms. They Need More Hallways., is forthcoming with PublicSource, Pittsburgh’s nonprofit news organization.

The piece grew out of the conversations I’ve been having while reaching beyond traditional literary spaces and connecting with libraries, galleries, arts organizations, educators, and community groups throughout Western Pennsylvania. The more of those conversations I had, the more I kept returning to the same idea: our creative communities are not necessarily lacking people, ideas, or spaces. Too often, we are simply working in separate rooms.

The commentary looks at some of the structural and cultural barriers that keep writers, artists, organizations, and audiences divided into their own creative ecosystems, and asks what might become possible if we became more intentional about building connections between them.

After several rounds of revision and collaborative editing with the PublicSource team, the final piece has been approved and is being prepared for publication.

There is something particularly meaningful about seeing an idea that began through my own local outreach become part of a larger public conversation.

Maybe the arts don’t need another room. Maybe we just need to start building more hallways.

After Eden emerges from revision

September 2026

After Eden has made it through beta reading, revisions, and one very intense stretch of living almost entirely inside the Garden.

Reader feedback helped me sharpen the manuscript, strengthen the emotional arc, and push Eva and Cain’s story closer to what I always knew it could be. The revised manuscript is now complete, marking the end of one stage of the process and the beginning of whatever comes next.

At its heart, After Eden is still a story about faith, desire, control, survival, and what happens when the person you fear becomes the one person willing to burn everything down for you. But after revision, the Garden feels darker, the relationships more complicated, and the choices considerably harder to survive.

For now, the manuscript is moving forward beyond beta reading while I begin exploring its path toward publication.

Eden is still growing. It just has sharper thorns now.

The poetry is came home

September 2026

What began as a decision to reclaim four poetry collections has become something tangible.

Contentment in the Shadows and Gospel of a Falling Star have now returned to the world through independent publication under WordsbyMAllshouse. These books began during an earlier chapter of my publishing journey, but bringing them home gave me the opportunity to revisit them on my own terms, reconsider their presentation, and decide what I wanted their next lives to look like.

Contentment in the Shadows was the first to make that journey. Holding the finished edition for the first time felt strangely circular: poetry that helped begin all of this, finally existing in a form that felt entirely mine.

Gospel of a Falling Star followed, carrying its own new identity into print.

Two collections are still forthcoming: Unmarked Graves and Heretic Psalms: Liturgy of the Unkept. Both need more time, more attention, and more careful revision before they are ready to make their way into readers’ hands. I would rather let them arrive when they feel complete than rush them simply for the sake of finishing the set.

There is something different about returning to old words after becoming a different writer. Some pieces ask to be changed. Some ask only to be seen again with clearer eyes.

Some work asks to be left behind. Some asks to be brought home and finally allowed to become what it was always supposed to be.

Something is stirring on Ream

Open Now

An old corner of my writing world is waking up again.

My Ream page is live, and I’m beginning to shape it into something that feels like a natural extension of WordsbyMAllshouse rather than simply another place to repost the same work.

I’m interested in using the space for the things that benefit from a little more room: serialized or exclusive fiction, deeper looks behind the writing, conversations about craft and story, early glimpses at developing projects, and the pieces that invite readers a little farther behind the page.

There is already work waiting there, and I’m continuing to decide what this corner of my creative world should become as it grows.

I don’t want Ream to exist simply because an author is supposed to be everywhere. I want it to earn its place by offering something different.

The door is open. Come a little farther behind the page.

Stay close to the story

The biggest news will always live here, but the smaller moments happen in between. Follow M. Allshouse on social media for works in progress, behind-the-scenes glimpses, new ideas, reader opportunities, and the occasional evidence that writing a book involves a truly unreasonable number of research rabbit holes.