“The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.” – Kurt Vonnegut
"Let us be clear: censorship is cowardice." - Pablo Antonio Cuadra
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." - Salman Rushdie
About John Mummert
I was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, attended high school in downstate Johnston City, and earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois. Following graduate school at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, I spent thirty years in the water quality protection and restoration field, most of that time with the state environmental agency in Texas. After retirement, I turned my attention to writing. After many years in Texas, I relocated to western Minnesota to escape the worsening heat and traffic, lower the risk of experiencing tornadoes, and frankly, in hopes of finding a space far less enraptured by the irrational hate, recreational cruelty, and irresponsible anti-science lunacy currently plaguing large portions of the country. Have I moved far enough away? I don't know.
This website is a work in progress, an internet presence to link to my writing projects. I have no desire to participate in the pestilence known as social media.
"There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people
running about with lit matches." - Ray Bradbury
My Stories
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live." – Joan Didion
Coming soon . . .
A Premier Sporting Destination
The opening of a new and controversial sports complex in Florida is big news . . .
Coming soon . . .
Like Chained Elephants
An homage to, and a sadly current take on Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” . . .
I'll Come Over
A young boy dreams of baseball stardom while facing confusion over a fascinating and perplexing new discovery—girls.
Up North Lit (Spring 2026)
Miles of Nought
There may be—Miles on Miles of Nought—
— Emily Dickinson
You hope a path might exist beyond bad memories and an empty life. But what if you find a path . . . and it leads to nothing?
Ivo Review
(Issue 2: Lost, December 2025)
Disappear
Deported and dumped at an airport in a dangerous location where you don't know anyone. Where you don't know even the language.
TrashLight
(Volume 1, Issue 2, Autumn 2025)
Six Hundred Feet
Two women stand vigil at the scene of a mining disaster. Based loosely on a December 1951 coal mine disaster in Southern Illinois.
Sangam Literary Magazine
(Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2023)
Who We Were Then
A spring break fishing trip ends in violence, with guilt reverberating through a lifetime.
Published in Wild: Uncivilized Tales From Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers
Selected as an "Other Distinguished Mystery & Suspense" story in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021
"The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” – Oscar Wilde
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