Where am I? What is this?

Hello!

My name is Dylan Taylor-Lehman, and I am a nonfiction writer from the foothills of Appalachia.

My goal is to tell compelling true stories that do justice to whatever subject it is I’m writing about. I try to approach each topic with an open mind and an appreciation that it exists on its own terms. I particularly like longform journalism and narrative nonfiction, and most of the work you’ll find here is of that variety.

I am a staff writer for the website Narratively and have bylines in a variety of other publications. I was lucky enough to work as a reporter for newspapers in southwestern Ohio and the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico, which were hugely formative experiences to me as a writer and a human being. Links to most of what I’ve written can be found in the menu to the right of this one.

I am represented by Amanda Jain at BookEnds Literary, and my book Dance of the Trustees: On the Astonishing Concerns of a Small Ohio Township, was published by Trillium Press, an imprint of The Ohio State University Press, in 2018.

My second book, Sealand: the True Story of the World’s Most Stubborn Micronation and its Eccentric Royal Family, will be published by Diversion Books on June 9, 2020. Sealand chronicles the wild history of the Principality of Sealand, a self-proclaimed country based on an old naval fort off the coast of England. An excerpt from that book can be found here and tells the tale of the use of bootleg Sealand passports to commit startlingly huge crimes all over the world.

Please feel free to get in touch about anything I’ve written! I’m always open to freelancing opportunities and helping you to ghostwrite or coauthor a book you have in mind.

In general, I love cats, I love tubing, I love to travel, I love the most stridulous of death metal, and I love being outside.

I can be reached at theyawningchasm [at] gmail [dot] com or through the social media accounts associated with this site. Thanks!

A list of the books I’ve read each year since 2008 can be found here. I’ll try to keep it updated.