Note: If you'd rather contribute to my livelihood on a one-time basis rather than as a monthly pledge, you can do that on Venmo, Square Cash, or PayPal. Thank you so much!

Who are you?
Hi! I'm Jack MacCarthy (he/they); I've also gone by Rae and Mariah. I'm a joyful nonbinary queer femme. I write YA novels, essays, plays, and other things. I'm also a life coach, producer, teacher, curator, storyteller, burlesque dabbler, rapper, birth mother, immersive-party-play-maker, and all-around creatrix.

My writing contains tenderness and brutality in unequal measure. Things I write tend to be sexy, queer, funny, and don't center cishet white dudes. My plays have been done everywhere from New York living rooms and subway stations to the Paris stage, and have won some awards.

Non-play things I write include Squad, my Young Adult novel about cheerleaders (published by FSG, available at a bookstore near you!) and articles all over the Internet.

I'm also an actor! You can watch me act here!

I also run a theatre company called Caps Lock (currently on hiatus). We do funny, human, ugly plays. I've curated and produce innovative and provocative festivals for Caps Lock and The Brick in Brooklyn.

I'm trying to transcend isolation through live events, education, and the written word. And I'd like to make a living at it.

adrienne maree brown has spoken really beautifully about social justice as science fiction, and how our world is only the way it is because someone imagined it into being.

We need to imagine better ways of being. And we cannot do that without stories.

I believe that the world needs the heart-full, queer-ass, empathy-driven stories I make, because I think we need a heart-full, queer-ass, empathy-driven world.

It's that simple to me.

What I'm working on:

Sometimes I will publish a brand-new piece of writing on here directly to Patreon. It might be a poem, it might be a personal essay, it might be a postmodern pop culture sendup. Here are a few examples of the kind of thing you can expect to see.

You'll also get an inside look into my other projects. Here are a few larger-scale projects I've got in the works right now:

-A short film, "Home Free," in which two unhoused teens - a trans guy and a werewolf - fall in love;

-Narcissus, a feature-length film in which I fall in love with my own clone;

-A TV adaptation of my dark dramedy-thriller about violent teen girls, Honors Students;

-A TV adaptation of my own story of becoming a birth parent;

-You Cannot Destroy Me, a rock musical in which Joan of Arc appears to Jo, a modern-day teen, and guides Jo on a journey that looks suspiciously like a present-day version of Joan's story. I'm teaming up with co-lyricist and composer Melissa Lusk and director/my art-wife Leta Tremblay on this.

-A new YA novel (working title: Radical) in which the queer kids and the cheerleaders join forces to form a radical cheerleading protest squad.

I am currently being paid for zero of these projects. And even if I end up getting paid at some point (like if I sell a book, or any of these TV shows get made), I will definitely lose money writing and developing these projects before they ever make me money.

I'm not going to pretend that art will stop existing if no one pays for it. Art always finds a way. But I think these projects should exist, and sooner than later, and this Patreon allows me to be paid for my labor. Art is not a cute hobby for me; it's my life. In the words of my friend and Patreon Patronus Monica Byrne, art is work. And work should be paid.

Convinced? Cool! Click this button in the top-right-hand corner (or bottom of screen on mobile):

Wait. What is Patreon?
Patreon is a way for artists to make a living from our work via direct monthly patronage. Like if Kickstarter were a gym membership, except instead of getting to lift weights and take classes, you get to read my early drafts or deleted excerpts or get access to an exclusive newsletter.

We're all familiar with crowdfunding by this point, but Patreon takes that crowdfunding model and it makes it sustainable and steady. That way, artists don't have to keep mounting Kickstarter after Indiegogo after GoFundMe, you can just MAKE the art.

Tell me more about these rewards levels, though.
Each level is named after the leading ladies of alt-rock that I was obsessed with in middle school through college, ranked roughly in the order of how much I listened to them. And the more you give, the more you get back. Want a postcard of my face or my cat? This can happen! Want me to name a character after you? Can do! Want your very own custom advice column, monologue, or short story? All these things are available to you at different rewards levels!

OK, let's do this thing.
Amazing! Thank you! Click this button in the top-right-hand corner (or bottom of screen on mobile):

Actually, I don't want to join Patreon, but can I give you money some other way?
Absolutely! You can do that on Venmo, Square Cash, or PayPal. Thank you so much!