Mishka Shubaly is a New York Times bestselling author, cult songwriter, and award-winning storyteller known for his raw, funny takes on survival and redemption. He has published seven #1 Kindle Singles and has taught nonfiction writing at Yale
for ten years.

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New York Times bestselling author, worst-selling songwriter, Moth Storyteller, Jeopardy! clue, unclean and sober ◆

New York Times bestselling author, worst-selling songwriter, Moth Storyteller, Jeopardy! clue, unclean and sober ◆

  • “The Kindle Singles bestseller list has anointed new stars like Mishka Shubaly.”

    The New York Times

  • “The gruff and rough‑voiced Shubaly is a chronicler of mankind’s darkest impulses and failures, a guy with a ticket to hell and back.”

    Time Out New York

  • “A beaming ray of jet‑black sunshine…”

    The Village Voice

  • “There’s no storyteller like Mishka Shubaly—hardcore on every emotional level, he scares the bejezus out of me… I Swear I’ll Make It Up to You is a brilliantly toxic confession…”

    Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone

  • “A mercilessly honest trip… elegant and eminently human account… The memoir I wish I could write.”

    Rich Roll, bestselling author

Mishka Shubaly is a celebrated nonfiction writer and storyteller, known for intimately personal essays about addiction, recovery, endurance, and reinvention. After earning an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, he hit the road in a Toyota minivan, touring relentlessly as a musician before rebooting his career in writing. His seven Amazon Kindle Singles have been bestsellers, praised for their grit, dark humor, emotional honesty, and restless vulnerability.

His full-length memoir, I Swear I’ll Make It Up to You, was released in 2016 and chronicles his addiction, near-self-destruction, and rebirth as an ultra-runner—earning critical praise as a no-holds-barred narrative of redemptive transformation. In 2020, Shubaly’s self-help audiobook Cold Turkey: How to Quit Drinking By Not Drinking went to #9 on the New York Times bestseller list. Shubaly edited Mark Lanegan’s memoir, Sing Backwards and Weep, which was named “Book of the Year” for 2020 by Rolling Stone, Kirkus, Rough Trade, MOJO, and Variety. In 2022, Shubaly self-published a collection of his Kindle Singles titled The Long Run and Other True Stories with a foreword by none other than Jeff Bezos.

Each summer, Mishka teaches a nonfiction writers’ workshop at Yale Summer Session, spurring writers to excavate the emotional truth beneath their work and rigorously refine their craft.

A man with a shaved head, beard, and tattoos on his arms standing with arms crossed in front of a yellow doorway decorated with string lights, wearing a plaid shirt.