Michael J. Atwood has been writing and publishing stories for more than 25 years. Beginning with publications in online and print literary journals, including "The Lay Over" in Ekashara and "Ancient Hibernians" in Istanbul Literary Review, he turned his focus away from screenwriting after graduating from the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing program in 2004.
In the early 2000s, Somerville-based Červen Barva Press published his story "Baptism," followed by The Sheebeen, a chapbook released by Aqueous Books, an independent press in Tallahassee, Florida. Aqueous Books also published Atwood's debut short story collection, HiStory of Santa Monica: Stories (2010). This Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles-themed collection was followed by four additional collections over the next fifteen years. His latest, Delirium Passes...Collected Stories 2000-2025, is a retrospective volume featuring selections of his most celebrated stories, as chosen by readers and reviewers.
His debut collection, HiStory of Santa Monica: Stories (2010), found readers throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Along with its 2016 follow-up, HiStory of Santa Monica II: More Stories, the collection explores disillusioned characters searching for meaning amid the glamour, ambition, and contradictions of Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles. His critically praised collection Delirium Fades followed in 2021, with The Moral Infectionpublished in 2023.
He lives in his longtime hometown of North Attleborough, Massachusetts, with his wife and three children.