Welcome to Hell World at PageTurners Reading Series

Luke O’Neil gives vent to some of the most heartfelt, political and anger-fueled prose to power its way to the public sphere since Hunter S. Thompson smashed a typewriter’s keys. Here, in one volume, is an unexpurgated selection of sixty-four of O’Neil’s finest rants, near-poetic rhapsodies, and investigatory journalism. Racism, sexism, immigration, unemployment, Marcus Aurelius, opioid addiction, Iraq: all are processed through the O’Neil grinder. He details failings in his own life and in those he observes around him. The result is a work of nonfiction that is at once intensely confessional and an energetic, unforgettable condemnation of American mores.

Welcome to Hell World is, in the author’s words, a “fever dream nightmare of reporting and personal essays from one of the lowest periods in our country in recent memory.” It is also a burning example of some of the best writing you’re likely to read anywhere.

Luke O’Neil has written for Esquire, New York Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Playboy, Slate, Vice, and many other publications. A longtime musician, he currently performs in the indie rock band no hope / no harm. A native of Massachusetts, he lives in that state with his wife Michelle.