“I moonlight, except there’s nothing I’m moonlighting from. Moonlight is all that’s out there.” ~Don DeLillo
What is the Serious Moonlight?
More zine than magazine, the Serious Moonlight arose out of the ongoing functional and reputational collapse of legacy media. There seem to be fewer outlets publishing less worthwhile writing every day, so here you’ll find urgent stories that have no place else to go. Frequently these will be articles commissioned by once-mighty publishers cut down by layoffs before deadline. Dedicated and often important work that would otherwise go to waste.
Moonlight founder Nick Hilden entered journalism in 2008 as both the newspaper industry and wider economy fell apart, and this experience coupled with a punk rock, DIY upbringing taught him that when journalists, artists, and other creatives can’t rely on existing platforms, they have to build their own.
Writing from a revolving cast of contributors will be rolling out before everything is polished and looking pretty. We are actively putting the cart before the horse, accepting contributions when there is barely a place to put them. There is no money yet and there probably never will be — everyone here is moonlighting. What matters is that the story is told.
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Conducted by:
Nick Hilden has spent over 15 years writing about art, science, politics, and more for the likes of Esquire, the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Scientific American, Al Jazeera, Rolling Stone, Afar, the Millions, the Believer, Nautilus, National Geographic, the BBC, the Daily Beast, the Observer, Runner’s World, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, Men’s Health, ArtNews, CNN, and many more. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter and find his writing at www.NickHilden.com.
Cartoonist/Contributor:
Bama Mike has been labeled with the DSM-5 classification of “Schizophrenia”. In alternate dimensions he converses with demons and some helpful spirits and has what could be described as a very active imagination. Mike has worked in community mental health for around a decade in various roles and is now a therapist for people with extreme, unusual and neurodivergent states of consciousness. Mike learned to express inexpressible concepts in his mind through “Art” and “Music.” His drawings are mainly done with Sharpies and crayons because that is fun. Mike’s base assumption when approaching “Art” is the world has gone Mad and we are left with very little but humor and love.