Lit Chat Interview with Michael Wiley

Michael Wiley’s new novel is The Long Way Out, featuring Franky Dast, an exonerated ex-con who investigates a series of murders in Northeast Florida. Michael is also the author of three mystery and detective series, including the Shamus Award-winning Joe Kozmarski books, the Daniel Turner thrillers, and, most recently, the Sam Kelson PI novels, which are currently in development for television. His short stories appear often in magazines and anthologies, including Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022. 

Michael grew up in Chicago and lived and worked in the neighborhoods and on the streets where he sets his Kelson and Kozmarski mysteries. He teaches literature at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville—the setting of The Long Way Out, an earlier Franky Dast novel (Monument Road), and the Daniel Turner novels.  

Interviewer Mark Ari authored the novel, The Shoemaker’s Tale (Zephyr Press) and publishes fiction, nonfiction and poetry. His paintings have been exhibited in group and solo shows in Spain, France, and the United States, especially New York City. Most recently, “Not in My Country,” an installation (text, film, sculpture, and scent) created with Ginger Andro and Chuck Glicksman was selected for Walls and Borders, an exhibition at Westbeth Gallery (NYC, 2021) sponsored by the Sculptors Guild (NYC). Recent writings appear in Adroit Journal, Heavy Feather Review, the International Journal of Professional Holistic Aromatherapy, and the anthology, Music Gigs Gone Wrong (Paycock Press). Ari is a three-time MacDowell fellow. Other awarded fellowships include the Ragdale Foundation (twice), Ucross Foundation, and Spain’s Fundacion Valparaiso. He is a multi-award-winning educator at the University of North Florida, where he directs the creative writing program.

READ

Check out all of Michael's books from the library, as well as Ari’s The Shoemaker’s Tale!

Michael Wiley recommends three “first books” by other mystery and thriller writers: 

Megan Abbott, Die a Little: “A terrific hardboiled story by a writer known best now for her psychological suspense thrillers.” S.A. Cosby, My Darkest Prayer: “The newly re-released, amazing first book by the author of Blacktop Wasteland and Razor Blade Tears.” Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress: “The Easy Rawlins mystery by the writer of dozens of excellent books, though none better than this.”

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