Chris DiLoreto and ZoëWroten-Heintzmann had a simple goal when they founded Monadnock Underground (M/U)  in 2019 -- to create a platform for local writers, particularly new and emerging writers.

Now in its fifth year, M/U has become a hub for area writers and artists, and filling a void in the local publishing scene. 

“There are so many people who say they write, but they have never put their work out there,” DiLoreto said. “We’ve had people who’ve been writing their whole lives but never submitted anything, to brand-new teen writers who never even thought about writing before.”

The first iteration of Monadnock Underground was a Medium website which accepted submissions for short stories, essays, nonfiction, serial novels and poetry. But as the response to the site grew and submissions flowed in, DiLoreto and Wroten-Heintzmann realized they had tapped into a real need, with hundreds of local writers eager to see their work published.

“We just want to get local writing out there,” DiLoreto said of the decision to launch Monadnock Underground. “We started it just for us and some of our friends, but after our first open call, we got so many submissions, we realized we needed our own website, for submissions and also for e-commerce.”

Thus, Monadnock Underground was born. For DiLoreto and  Wroten-Heintzmann, it’s a labor of love. 

“No one can really make money on writing. You can pay your writers and maybe break even, but even people who publish with the Big 6 publishers barely make any money. We just want to get people’s work out there and for it to be read,” DiLoreto said. “And not all of our writers are local; we have some people who have been writing for us since the very beginning from other parts of the country.” 

DiLoreto and Wroten-Heintzmann are both writers with other “full-time gigs.” DiLoreto, a father of two, manages a software team remotely, and Wroten-Heintzmannhomeschools her three young children. In their minimal free time, DiLoreto and Wroten-Heintzmann review and edit submissions  for M/U, create a podcast, run an open mic night, participate in community events and manage community listings and information for "Go Monadnock,” a curated calendar of local civic, arts and cultural events, which they took over from Kim Graham in 2019. 

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After experimenting with having two separate websites for M/U and Go Monadnock for the past few years, DiLoreto and Wroten-Heintzmann are in the process of merging the two sites into one.

In 2020-2021, during the pandemic, M/U put out three print anthologies by M/U writers, edited by Wroten-Heintzmann: “Spirits Oppidum,” “Demiurges and DemiGods” and “18 Miles of Crimes.” DiLoreto also  completed a novel/memoir, “This Is Not Ordinary Time.” 

Local writers who have published with M/U include storyteller Sebastian Lockwood, poet Fred Gerhard, author and columnist Dan Sczesny, journalist Eric Poor, author Diane Kane and novelist William Mullen. Unlike most publishers, M/U does not retain copyright of the writing  published on the site, allowing writers to take their work back and republish at will. 

In 2019, Wroten-Heintzmann and DiLoreto launched the monthly M/U open mic night at the Peterborough Town Library. Open mic night welcomes any kind of writing, spoken word and music. After going on hiatus during the pandemic – DiLoreto notes that the M/U open mic night was literally the last public event at the library before it was renovated, and the last public event before lockdown – it will have its third anniversary in November.  

“Every month is totally different at open mic night. It attracts a wide gamut of people writing in all different genres; everything from vampire stories to excerpts from novels. Some months, there are four of us sitting around the table and it’s very intimate. Other months there are 20 people. Sometimes it’s music and poetry. Sometimes people are just sharing,” Wroten-Heintzmann said. 

DiLoreto credits open mic’s success to its casual, supportive format.

“We give informal feedback if people want it. Some people don’t want feedback; they just want to express themselves. Some people take notes,” DiLoreto said. 

In 2022, DiLoreto and Wroten-Heintzmann were deeply affected by the death of Bill Chatfield, founder of the Peterborough Poetry Project. During the beginning of the pandemic, Wroten-Heintzmann began posting poems around Depot Square and downtown Peterborough, and then noticed that someone else was doing the same thing. She learned the other public poetry poster was Chatfield, and the three became close friends. After Chatfield died in 2022, his family asked  M/U to take over the Peterborough Poetry Project. 

“We are just so honored to take over Bill’s work,” DiLoreto said.

“That is a another whole project, and a third website we will possibly be merging with M/U. We’re trying to figure it out and see what happens,” Wroten-Heintzmann said. “Right now, we’re working on digitizing the Poetry Project archives, so it’s a big project.”

Most recently, M/U released “Anywhere But Here: A 1980’s Road Story,” a novel loosely based on life events by Nelson resident William Mullens, in print. The book is about to go into another print run due to enthusiastic response by readers.

M/U’s most recent submissions period just closed. Next up on the M/U schedule of events  is the “1990s  Peterborough Yearbook,” which Wroten-Heintzmann and DiLoreto are creating as part of the “Best of ’90s Mixtape” night market hosted by MAXTMakerspace on Aug. 9. M/U is currently accepting submissions for a open call for photos from Peterborough in the 1990s. 

“That is a super fun project, and we are having a blast with it,” Wroten-Heintzmann said. “Anyone with ’90s photos from Peterborough, please, send them in.”

For information about Monadnock Underground or Go Monadnock, go to gomonadnock.com.