Mark Cunningham - Editor

Moss is a journal of writing from the Pacific Northwest, published three times a year online and once annually in print.

As a Contributing Editor for Moss, I solicit and edit new works of fiction and nonfiction; review unsolicited submissions; confer with editorial team on acquisitions and plans for future issues.

Atelier26 is a nationally recognized, award-winning publishing house specializing in contemporary and classic literature. Distributed throughout North America by Independent Publishers Group (IPG).

At Atelier26 I acquire new works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; provide comprehensive editing in close collaboration with authors; proofread and copy edit; work with cover designer; manage editorial and publication calendar; manage print production schedules (galleys, proofs, and finals); write advertising copy, book jacket copy, and promotional copy; frequently update content on company website and write for social media channels; work with publicist to coordinate and execute marketing and promotion; confer with Advisory Board members; work with North American distributor; devise budgets; write grants; report to fiscal sponsor; track and dispense author royalties; read and manage submissions; negotiate and execute author contracts.

Since 2004, I have provided editing and writing services to a broad range of clients around the country, from developing writers to rocket scientists, government contractors, large nonprofits, and NGOs. Organizational clients include:
o Raytheon
o The American Transplant Foundation
o The Gastro-Intestinal Research Foundation
o The Adaptive Sailing Foundation
o Invest for Kids Chicago
o The Environmental Investigation Agency
o Prosperity Now

Under the pen name M. Allen Cunningham I have published eight books (fiction & nonfiction) since 2004:
o Perpetua’s Kin, a novel (published Sept. 2018)
o Funny-Ass Thoreau, nonfiction (published 2016)
o Partisans, a novel (published March 2015)
o The Flickering Page, cultural criticism (published March 2014)
o The Honorable Obscurity Handbook, essays (published spring 2014)
o Date of Disappearance, short story collection (published April 2012)
o Lost Son, a novel (published spring 2007)
o The Green Age of Asher Witherow, a novel (published fall 2004)

Since 2002, my essays, articles, criticism, blog posts, and short stories have appeared in numerous print and online publications both national and regional, including regular contributions to The Oregonian Books section.

A Thousand Distant Radios

Woody Skinner

Painting modern America in saturated colors, this collection of short stories explores the passions and compulsions at the core of our national identity: those qualities that propel us forward or hold us back; that make us strangers to ourselves and others even while we pine for connection; the ways we cope with the inescapable enormity of our nation's geography. A marlin swims circles in a lu... read more

Painting modern America in saturated colors, this collection of short stories explores the passions and compulsions at the core of our national identity: those qualities that propel us forward or hold us back; that make us strangers to ourselves and others even while we pine for connection; the ways we cope with the inescapable enormity of our nation's geography. A marlin swims circles in a lu... read more

Gravity

Elizabeth Rosner

Through an extraordinarily powerful mix of poetry and prose, the author shares her experience as the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She recounts her false starts in raising the subject with her father (a survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp), his piecemeal revelations, and their eventual travels together to the sites of the nightmare in Germany. Through her work she evokes, courageously... read more

Through an extraordinarily powerful mix of poetry and prose, the author shares her experience as the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She recounts her false starts in raising the subject with her father (a survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp), his piecemeal revelations, and their eventual travels together to the sites of the nightmare in Germany. Through her work she evokes, courageously... read more

The Beauty of Ordinary Things

Harriet Scott Chessman

Back from a tour of duty in Vietnam, Benny Finn strives to find his bearings amid the everyday life of 1973 New England. At a Benedictine Abbey in rural New Hampshire, Sister Clare, a young novice, confronts the day-to-day realities of a cloistered existence. Linking the stories of Benny and Sister Clare is Isabel Howell, a college student soon to discover that she must chart the course of her... read more

Back from a tour of duty in Vietnam, Benny Finn strives to find his bearings amid the everyday life of 1973 New England. At a Benedictine Abbey in rural New Hampshire, Sister Clare, a young novice, confronts the day-to-day realities of a cloistered existence. Linking the stories of Benny and Sister Clare is Isabel Howell, a college student soon to discover that she must chart the course of her... read more

Funny-Ass Thoreau (Regeneration Series)

This book presents fans of Henry David Thoreau with a marvelous display of his most underappreciated quality: his killer sense of humor. Amid the transcendental musings of his best known works and the nature descriptions in his voluminous journal, Thoreau was constantly tossing off jokes, whipping out witticisms, and making fun of himself and others. Here he is in his own words trying to wrang... read more

This book presents fans of Henry David Thoreau with a marvelous display of his most underappreciated quality: his killer sense of humor. Amid the transcendental musings of his best known works and the nature descriptions in his voluminous journal, Thoreau was constantly tossing off jokes, whipping out witticisms, and making fun of himself and others. Here he is in his own words trying to wrang... read more

Bird Book: Poems

Sidney Wade

In this stunning collection, the author offers an exquisite array of poems at once sublime and playful, dedicated to the unearthly wonders of winged creatures. The book is a universal song of praise to the mysteries and intricacies of the animal world that surrounds us, and a wide-awake hymn, by a master lyricist, to the delights and surprises of our common language. The brilliantly vivid, ele... read more

In this stunning collection, the author offers an exquisite array of poems at once sublime and playful, dedicated to the unearthly wonders of winged creatures. The book is a universal song of praise to the mysteries and intricacies of the animal world that surrounds us, and a wide-awake hymn, by a master lyricist, to the delights and surprises of our common language. The brilliantly vivid, ele... read more

Someone Not Really Her Mother

Harriet Scott Chessman

This masterful and compassionate novel is split into a series of interlinked stories that tell the tale of Hannah Pearl. As Hannah’s memory of the present begins to fade, she increasingly inhabits the world of her ardent and frightened youth in war-torn France and England, while her memories of life in America with her daughter and granddaughters have almost been erased. Throughout the book ea... read more

This masterful and compassionate novel is split into a series of interlinked stories that tell the tale of Hannah Pearl. As Hannah’s memory of the present begins to fade, she increasingly inhabits the world of her ardent and frightened youth in war-torn France and England, while her memories of life in America with her daughter and granddaughters have almost been erased. Throughout the book ea... read more

Lost Son

M Allen Cunningham

Spanning western Europe from 1875 to 1917 and presenting a gothic historical Paris that subverts our old assumptions regarding the City of Light, M. Allen Cunningham’s new novel brings a brooding atmosphere and human complexity to an intimate and imaginative portrait of one of the most uniquely sensitive artists of his time, a poet whose odd childhood and difficult early life will both fascina... read more

Spanning western Europe from 1875 to 1917 and presenting a gothic historical Paris that subverts our old assumptions regarding the City of Light, M. Allen Cunningham’s new novel brings a brooding atmosphere and human complexity to an intimate and imaginative portrait of one of the most uniquely sensitive artists of his time, a poet whose odd childhood and difficult early life will both fascina... read more

The Green Age of Asher Witherow

M Allen Cunningham

Supplying a quarter of San Francisco’s coal, Nortonville of the 1860s-70s is a flourishing empire in small, seeming to promise unending prosperity and a better future. But beneath the vibrant work ethic of its Welch citizens lies an insidious network of superstitions.A missing boy first brings these dark undercurrents to light. Then young Asher Witherow falls under the spell of an unorthodox a... read more

Supplying a quarter of San Francisco’s coal, Nortonville of the 1860s-70s is a flourishing empire in small, seeming to promise unending prosperity and a better future. But beneath the vibrant work ethic of its Welch citizens lies an insidious network of superstitions.A missing boy first brings these dark undercurrents to light. Then young Asher Witherow falls under the spell of an unorthodox a... read more

Partisans: A Lost Work by Geoffrey Peerson Leed (Samizdat Series)

M. Allen Cunningham

Through the lost work of the mysterious Geoffrey Peerson Leed, this novel describes a brutal war in an unspecified past as well as Leed's struggle to survive in paranoiac future riven by totalitarianism and social decay. The book is presented in nine parts according to the designs indicated by Leed in the manuscripts that were discovered after his disappearance. Everywhere at its heart, the bo... read more

Through the lost work of the mysterious Geoffrey Peerson Leed, this novel describes a brutal war in an unspecified past as well as Leed's struggle to survive in paranoiac future riven by totalitarianism and social decay. The book is presented in nine parts according to the designs indicated by Leed in the manuscripts that were discovered after his disappearance. Everywhere at its heart, the bo... read more

The Honorable Obscurity Handbook: Solidarity & Sound Advice for Writers and Artists (Samizdat Series)

M. Allen Cunningham

Part consoling sourcebook, part cultural commentary, and part wry self-help manual, this gloriously uncynical handbook provides advice for creatives struggling in a career world awash in bottom-line thinking. With an appealing blend of sound counsel, good humor, and vivid historical and literary anecdotes, M. Allen Cunningham offers solidarity to any writer or artist working against the grain ... read more

Part consoling sourcebook, part cultural commentary, and part wry self-help manual, this gloriously uncynical handbook provides advice for creatives struggling in a career world awash in bottom-line thinking. With an appealing blend of sound counsel, good humor, and vivid historical and literary anecdotes, M. Allen Cunningham offers solidarity to any writer or artist working against the grain ... read more

Date of Disappearance: Assorted Stories

M. Allen Cunningham

Presenting an array of private conundrums, this assortment of ten distinctive stories trace the disappearance of things physical, spiritual, or poignantly unnamable from various characters' lives as they face, with humor or disquiet, the blessed and bewildering challenges of living. An evangelical minister sets out to win back the trust of his flock and save his 'fallen' teenage son, meanwhile... read more

Presenting an array of private conundrums, this assortment of ten distinctive stories trace the disappearance of things physical, spiritual, or poignantly unnamable from various characters' lives as they face, with humor or disquiet, the blessed and bewildering challenges of living. An evangelical minister sets out to win back the trust of his flock and save his 'fallen' teenage son, meanwhile... read more

The Flickering Page: The Reading Experience in Digital Times (Samizdat Series)

M. Allen Cunningham

A provocative casebook for our digital times, this book is designed to jumpstart an in-depth dialogue about the historical, cultural, civic, and scientific implications of a mass shift in reading methods. Each chapter is broken down in a visual way through bullet points, bolding, and illustrations combined with descriptive paragraphs that both engage and inform the reader. This small volume we... read more

A provocative casebook for our digital times, this book is designed to jumpstart an in-depth dialogue about the historical, cultural, civic, and scientific implications of a mass shift in reading methods. Each chapter is broken down in a visual way through bullet points, bolding, and illustrations combined with descriptive paragraphs that both engage and inform the reader. This small volume we... read more

The Prosperous Peasant: Five Secrets of Fortune & Fulfillment from the Samurai's Temple School

Tim Clark, Mark Cunningham

This text is the story of the true adventures of a peasant who rose from poverty to ultimate prosperity during Japan's golden age of the samurai. Now, the secrets that guided Hideyoshi are revealed.

This text is the story of the true adventures of a peasant who rose from poverty to ultimate prosperity during Japan's golden age of the samurai. Now, the secrets that guided Hideyoshi are revealed.