Crime novelist Don Winslow said he is retiring from the profession after over 30 years to turn his attention to political advocacy and fighting the MAGA movement.
The third installment of his Danny Ryan trilogy, “City in Ruins,” was released last month and will complete not only the series, but also his writing career, he told multiple media outlets this week.
The world of political activism is not new to Winslow, who has released a series of videos online in recent years targeting former President Trump and other Republican leaders. In one video, called “#DonaldTrumpLifetimeOfLies,” Trump is labelled as a “con-man” and a liar.
His videos, produced with screenwriter Shane Salerno, have amassed hundreds of thousands of views in recent years.
In an interview with The New York Times, Winslow said he recognized his books are not able to reach the sorts of audiences he is looking for in a short amount of time.
“There’s no way I can reach that many people with a novel,” he told The Times. “And the novels take so much time, in an era where really what is needed are much faster responses.”
Starting in 2015, he said he began feeling like he should be “putting more energy into the fight against” what he believes is “a neofascist movement in America led by a wannabe dictator.”
What’s happening in the country, and what’s happened in the country since 2015. I think that my energies are better spent in a fight against, let’s be blunt, Donald Trump,” he told Rolling Stone.
In another interview with USA Today, Winslow argued Trump is a “severe threat to our democracy,” and called on Americans to get out and vote for city, state and federal elections.
During his writing career of nearly 31 years, Winslow released 21 novels, various short stories for anthologies and magazines, and has columns published in a variety of national outlets.
The Hill reached out to Winslow for comment.