Arnie Bernstein

Chicago, USA

My listings (1)

About Me

Your voice. Your story. Your passion.

My job is you!

I’m Arnie Bernstein, writing coach, ghostwriter, editor, and award-winning author of narrative nonfiction. I I bring passion, curiosity, and craft to coaching writers through their creative and professional projects. Memoirs. Biographies. True crime. Character-driven history. Ghostwriting. Book proposals. Historical fiction. And a whole lot more. I’ve 30+ years in the writing game. Plus, I’m a sucker for writing first drafts on manual typewriters, of which I have an impressive stable.

Whether you’re developing a book, refining a manuscript, or working through a revision, my job is to help get your voice on the page in its strongest, most engaging form.

🧭 What I Bring to Uptales

Decades of experience in:

  • Research-driven storytelling and historical framing
  • Revision guidance amplifies author voice while strengthening impact
  • Narrative clarity and structural development
  • Constructive editorial feedback rooted in craft and audience attention
  • Writing workshop leader for adult and high school students; corporate clients.

My coaching is collaborative, thoughtful, and geared toward real results — finishing your draft, tightening your narrative, and preparing a solid manuscript for submission or publication.

🛠️ Background & Experience

  • Author of multiple acclaimed books including Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing (University of Michigan Press) and Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and The Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund (St. Martin’s Press, plus Polish translation)
  • Experienced researcher and storyteller with a strong foundation in historical narrative and cultural study
  • Mentor and coach to writers working on nonfiction, memoir, and character-driven storytelling
  • Works published in The Chicago Tribune, The New York Journal of Books, Tablet, AISH, and many others
  • Interviewed for my historical expertise and writing insights for stories and documentaries by the The New York Times, HBO, MSNBC PBS, CSPAN Book TV and BBC, plus major media in the United States, Australia, England, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Poland, and more.
  • Awards and honors include: Puffin Foundation Grant, chosen for Warner Brothers Comedy Writing Workshop, named as one of the LIT 50: Who Really Books in Chicago. Honored by both the Illinois State Library Center for the Book and the State Library of Michigan: Notable Book Author. Someday I hope to be honored by the State Library of Hawaii.

🎤 Arnie’s Guiding Philosophy

Everyone has a unique story. Passion connects you with readers and readers with you. With the right tools, insight, and feedback your writing will soar into unexpected and invigorating directions.

✅ Work With Arnie On:

  • Plot and story structure and manuscript revision
  • Historical, narrative nonfiction, and memoir projects
  • Corporate and family histories
  • Writing workshops
  • Voice development and clarity
  • Research organization and integration
  • Revision strategy strengthening audience engagement
  • Book proposals
  • Finalizing a manuscript for submission or publication
  • Marketing strategies

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Past Works

Amazon

Bath Massacre

By Arnie Bernstein "With the meticulous attention to detail of a historian and a storyteller's eye for human drama, Bernstein shines a beam of truth on a forgotten American tragedy. Heartbreaking and riveting." ---Gregg Olsen, New York Times best-selling author of Starvation Heights "A chilling and historic character study of the unfathomable suffering that desperation and fury, once unleashed inside a twisted mind, can wreak on a small town. Contemporary mass murderers Timothy McVeigh, Columbine's Dylan Klebold, and Virginia Tech's Seung-Hui Cho can each trace their horrific genealogy of terror to one man: Bath school bomber Andrew Kehoe." ---Mardi Link, author of When Evil Came to Good Hart On May 18, 1927, the small town of Bath, Michigan, was forever changed when Andrew Kehoe set off a cache of explosives concealed in the basement of the local school. Thirty-eight children and six adults were dead, among them Kehoe, who had literally blown himself to bits by setting off a dynamite charge in his car. The next day, on Kehoe's farm, what was left of his wife---burned beyond recognition after Kehoe set his property and buildings ablaze---was found tied to a handcart, her skull crushed. With seemingly endless stories of school violence and suicide bombers filling today's headlines, Bath Massacre serves as a reminder that terrorism and large-scale murder are nothing new.

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Amazon

Swastika Nation

By Arnie Bernstein A history of the German-American Bund traces the efforts of Fritz Kuhn and his followers to overthrow the U.S. government with a fascist dictatorship, tracing their private and public meetings, the development of their own version of the SS and Hitler Youth and the politicians, lawyer, journalist and criminals who used respective means to counter the movement.

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arniebernstein.substack.com

The Typewriter's Collage

Personal essays, stuff on the writing life, movies & books, Judaism, and lots of references to Chico Marx. Drafted on typewriter, edited in MS Word on a Mac, presented to you on SubStack. Serious stuff with a humorous foundation.

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