Ever had a case of the Mondays? Of course you have. But thanks to Shawn Scott Smith, a writer, editor, and pinball aficionado from North Carolina, you can get your week off to a better start by reading a poem or flash fiction piece selected and curated by Shawn via his online literary presence, Mucky Mondays.
Shawn launched the project earlier this year, and it didn’t take long for him to fill his calendar for 2026. (I’m one of the lucky mucks to be included in Scott’s publication this year. Check out “Scenes from a Chinese Restaurant,” which Scott kindly nominated for a Best of the Net award.) He will solicit submissions for the 2027 lineup beginning in November.
An accomplished writer in his own right, Shawn’s first collection of poetry and short stories, Telemetry: Poems and Shorts 2014-2017, was published in 2018. His newest book, Atomic Number, contains 117 poems, each one titled after an element of the periodic table. (Check out a couple of poems from the collection.) He’s also been published in a bunch of literary magazines, including Alien Buddha, BULL, Burial Magazine, Dodo Eraser, and Hawkeye.
Read on to learn more about Shawn’s writing journey, the origin of Mucky Mondays, his pinball obsession, and more.
1. Talk a bit about your writing journey. How did you first get interested in writing.
I have always been writing something, whether it was comic book fan scripts, or trying my hand at screenwriting, it’s always been there.
I took a break from writing around 2018 as my son got older and time got tight.
When my marriage fell apart in 2024 it took a few months but I knew I needed something to create or collaborate on.
I consider myself a positive person by nature and the writing allows me to get rid of a lot of the negativity that I have no use for daily, but it is still there.
It really has been the steadying force for me and allows me to get that hit of creation.
2. Do you consider yourself to be primarily a poet, a writer of fiction or nonfiction, or some hybrid type of writer? Which aspect of writing to you focus on, and why?
I think I’m most successful/productive as a poet, but if I had the talent and the patience I would write giant science fiction novels that would put everyone reading to sleep.
I have some small fictions published but I do tend to get more positive feedback from the poetry.
3. Your Mucky Mondays project seems to have really taken off.
Thanks for saying that. It seems to be doing really well as a little upstart.
What was your motivation to start it?
I came up in the punk/indie music scene booking bands in dive bars and skate parks. People you would meet once, and then they were gone from your life.
Some of them still communicate with me from time to time. People you spent one night watching twenty years ago.
Community has always been a thing for me, and I saw a chance to give back to some of the writers I admired, and even though we just give $5 per piece I’m proud we are a paying site, even if we have no style or glamour to speak of. Just the words.
Is it working the way you expected? Any surprises along the way?
I think it is working fine. We have had some stellar work already including yours. I’m surprised I’m full for 2026 already, and thinking about how we grow in 2027 in a way that allows more voices to be heard but doesn’t make it too much for me to handle.
4. You are quite the pinball aficionado. How did that come about, and how does that … hobby? obsession? … contribute to your writing life?
Ha. So I grew up playing pinball after ice hockey practice. Playing a Funhouse and Whirlwind machine to be exact. Went to college, video games took over much of the world and I’d see pinball occasionally but didn’t think much of it.
I was at a game convention about 9 years ago and heard a room of pinball in the corner. Wandered over to check it out, and saw a sign that said tournament players only. I figured these must be some sort of elite people who never gave up playing pinball, and wandered away. But it got me curious and I searched that next week. Found out there were people having tournaments everywhere in the world, some at bars/arcades and some at peoples’ houses. The whole concept surprised me and a month later I drove to a stranger’s house in South Carolina, knocked on the door and was greeted by the sounds of games from the 1960s to 2020s inside. And the people were from all walks of life, young and old. I’ve played with 80-year-olds, and kids as young as six have beaten me badly. I was hooked, and it spiraled from there. Became obsessed with the machines, the designers, the history and the hunt for finding games in the wild.
Again I think it came down to finding a community and being able to make friends from all over.
5. Finally, what advice do you have for anyone interested in seriously pursuing a writing journey?
Just write. Don’t worry about the rejections, it could be editor taste, or it could be your work could be better, but the writing is what makes it better. Just do the act, and good things will follow. Don’t say no to your impulsive creative thoughts even if they seem strange to everyone else. Create.
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- Follow Shawn on Twitter/X at @luckycreature (also @luckycreature on Instagram).
- Find updates about Mucky Mondays on Twitter/X with the hashtag #MuckyMondays.
Selected poems from Atomic Number
Nitrogen (N)
Three generations in, and I’m lost.
This is my home? Is it yours?
To live in peace, to live with enough,
Cancer in every corner of every lobbyist’s cell phone.
The flag’s red stripes bleed with our nation’s heart.
Two more for the deportation line,
A crime of feeding the famila,
A crime of working hard for a better tomorrow.
I choke on the words to say I’m sorry.
That this is happening to any human.
The man with the bad smelling suit grins,
He counts his money as the bread lines form,
“Fire them all, we have robots coming.”
To tend to nature, to shops, to our America, the beautiful.
The flag’s white stripes are all the capitalist sees.
Born different than me, unlucky guidance from birth,
Like magic my skin protects me in these dark times,
But I haven’t earned a place here.
I was given, with no sorry to those who were not.
Born Free. But my freedom is on the backs of those not.
I can not sit idly by and witness,
But our voices aren’t heard,
The soldiers are now local,
The rambling of madness, flames engulfing us all.
The flag’s blue is the river of tears, washing away all the stars.
Magnesium (Mg)
My body doesn’t work right anymore,
Can’t talk, can’t walk right,
Never could sing a lick.
My heart doesn’t care right anymore,
Can’t love, Can’t kiss right,
Never could make you happy.
I am everywhere I shouldn’t be.
I am everything I want to be.
Full of thoughts,
About the things I believed were true.
Andrew Careaga 