Mike Holtzman

"The Temple Keep," Mike Holtzman's debut novel, hits shelves on October 13, 2026. The mind-bending tale blends real hidden history, ciphers in Shakespearean texts, tunnels beneath America's oldest college building, and occultism to reveal a secret so explosive it could change human destiny.

The first major historical thriller set in Colonial Williamsburg and the first to feature QR codes that take the reader beyond the page, "The Temple Keep" has been hailed by reviewers. "The most genuinely shocking twist I have read!" (Frank Shatz, Columnist, The Virginia Gazette).

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Mike Holtzman's Harrowing Story "The House at the End of the World," is Published in the Spring 2020 Issue of Solstice Literary Magazine! Read it: https://solsticelitmag.org/content/the-house-at-the-end-of-the-world/

"I am so taken with this story, with the language, with the prose poetry, and the moving way Holtzman depicts the flood," said Solstice Editor-in-Chief Lee Hope Betcher. "I love the range he shows in his work."

“Mike Holtzman brings us a story not just for our time….but for all time. Relevant, passionate and accessible story-telling that tackles head-on some of today’s biggest challenges – race and climate change. This is clearly a writer to be watched….and read.” -Brian F. Keane, Author, “Green is Good”

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"Paper Dolls of the East,” is Named a Finalist for the Tucson Festival of Books' Literature Prize and Wins Accolades from Lorian Hemingway and Glimmer Train!

Man Booker Prize Winner Paul Beatty selected Mike Holtzman's latest short story, "Paper Dolls of the East," for the summer 2020 issue of the literary magazine Solstice, and awarded it one of the magazine's highest honors in its annual literary competition. Describing the harrowing tale of Syrian refugees, Beatty said, "Mike uses fragments to reveal a Syrian refugee camp at the Lebanese border and the painful choice a mother makes to sell one daughter as a sex slave in order to save another daughter who is handicapped. TRULY UNFORGETTABLE."

"Paper Dolls of the East" was also named a Finalist for the Tucson Festival of Books' Literature Prize. The well-received story has also received "Honorable Mentions" from Lorian Hemingway and by Glimmer Train, one of the most prominent American journals for art and literature.

"The girl peers through a hole in the sun-bleached blue polythene wrap that doesn’t do much to keep out the rain and the cold which come more often in this squalid valley than they did back home just over the mountains. Those jagged peaks once three days beneath her feet are now two days walk behind her, a forbidding ridge at the edge of camp that splits her life in two uneven parts one teeming with the simple delights and rituals of childhood, the other littered with despair that collects spoils and spreads under thousands of flimsy tents pitched across an unwanted patch of useless landscape." --from Mike Holtzman's "Paper Dolls of the East"

Read it Here!

Listen to Mike and the mega-group "Bad Penny" on Apple Music. Below are links to videos to "Army of One" (ft. Dee Snider) “Lose Myself (ft. Former Journey lead singer Steve Augeri) and “Push Comes to Shove (ft. Rob Halford and Militia Vox).

A gallery of painting, sculpture and mixed media creations.