Mike O'Mary

Mike O'Mary is author of two books: "Wise Men and Other Stories: Lessons from the Holidays on Santa, God, Heaven, Death and Other Fun Stuff from Someone Who Still Has a Lot to Learn," a collection of holiday-related essays, and "The Note," a book about the power of appreciation that was named a Best Gift Book in the Living Now Book Awards.

In his career, Mike has written essays, fiction, drama and sketch comedy. He has published stories and essays in the Sunday magazines of the Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Baltimore Sun, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Detroit Free Press. He has also written and produced sketch comedy in Chicago, and he was a commentator on WNIJ - Northern Illinois Public Radio, doing weekly commentaries as part of the local segment of National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" program.

Mike is a graduate of Knox College (BA in Economics and English-Writing), the University of Montana (MFA in Creative Writing, MA in English Literature), and the Second City Comedy Writing Program.

From 2009 - 2016, Mike was publisher at Dream of Things, an independent press focused on memoirs, essay collections, and other books that aligned with with the Dream of Things mission to publish "distinctive voices, meaningful books." Books published by Dream of Things include:

- Everything I Never Wanted to Be by Dina Kucera

- MFA in a Box by John Rember

- Leaving the Hall Light On by Madeline Sharples

- Swimming with Maya by Eleanor Vincent

- Betty's Child by Donald R. Dempsey

- She's Not Herself by Linda Appleman Shapiro

- Daughters of Absence by Mindy Weisel

- Any Road Will Take You There by David W. Berner

- There's a Hamster in the Dashboard by David W. Berner

- Saying Goodbye, a collection of stories about saying goodbye to the people, places, and things in our lives, edited by Julie Rember and Mike O'Mary

- Be There Now, an anthology of travel stories from around the world, edited by Julie Rand and Mike O'Mary

To contact Mike O'Mary, write to mike at michaelomary dot com.