Charlie Allison

Charlie Allison is an anarchist writer, storyteller, and activist who lives in Philadelphia.

He graduated from Juniata College in 2010 with a degree in Communications and a minor in History.

He didn’t learn his lesson and so eight years later graduated with distinction from Arcadia University’s Creative Writing MFA program (while wearing a wizard beard borrowed specifically for the occasion).

Later, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2019 to teach English as Second Language in Mongolia. However, Covid-19 spelled a swift end to that particular course of action before he so much as set foot on a plane.

For a person who despises hats, Charlie has donned a lot of figurative ones. Most of his days are spent in freelance editing, agitating, writing, consulting and giving tours of Philadelphia.

He has written blogs for PM PRESS, alternate history speculation at Sea Lion Press, short fantasy fiction at Pickman’s Press, Podcastle,  The Stone Coast Review, Ellipsis Zine and many other fine literary establishments.

No Harmless Power: The Life and Times of the Ukrainian Anarchist Nestor Makhno is his first book and forthcoming from PM Press in 2023.

You can check out his personal website (where he posts his thoughts on everything from anarchist praxis to Ottomans to ecology) HERE.

• Book events
• Reviews
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Praise

“A biography that reads like a great adventure story, this tale of freedom-fighting and myth-making in early-twentieth-century Eastern Europe is as entertaining as it is necessary.”
—Stephanie Feldman, author of Angel of Losses and Saturnalia

“Charles Allison has turned his talents to a topic that was colorful and interesting even before recent global events gave Ukraine fresh relevance. Allison’s accessible and humorous writing saturates the book with passages that are chock-full of the sort of informational nuggets that readers will enjoy passing along to friends and family.”
—Matt Hongoltz-Hetling, author of A Libertarian Walks into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and some Bears)

“Charlie Allison’s examination of Nestor Makhno’s life is the most well-researched and cool-headed assessment I have yet to read. Makhno’s idealism was matched by his skills as a military strategist, his growing political sophistication and his commitment to Ukrainian independence. His revolutionary ideas were innovative and effective, and he remains a great Ukrainian hero both for his courage and for his intelligence. How Ukrainian history might have played out through the 20th century had Trotsky and his fellow Bolsheviks not betrayed Makhno is of particular and urgent interest to today’s political students and commentators. Allison’s research is both more thorough than anything we have seen for many years and displays the reality behind the myth of a great Ukrainian hero. I cannot recommend it more enthusiastically. To read Allison today is to understand not only yesterday’s conflicts but also tomorrow’s politics.”
—Michael Moorcock

“No Harmless Power is an exhilarating ride through the revolutionary life and times of Nestor Makhno. With wry humor, original research, and an unforgettable cast of characters, Charles Allison gives a vivid account of a tumultuous period in the history of Ukraine and the Russian Revolution that ripples to the present day.”
—Tauno Biltsted, author of The Anatomist’s Tale

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Book Events

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Reviews

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Interviews

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Mentions

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Blog

• A conversation with Alex Knight
• A conversation with Matt Hongoltz-Hetling
• What Would They Play: Alexander Kerensky’s EDH Deck
• The Second Walkout at Temple, February 28th
• An interview with TUGSA, Temple Grad Students Launch Repeated Walkouts in February
• What Would They Play? Quico Sabate’s Ognis Deck
• Pirates, Community and Christiania— A Conversation with Author and Activist Tauno Biltsted
• Support Philadelphia’s People’s Townhomes and Show Up to Prevent Their Eviction
• July 19th, 1936, Barcelona
• The Many Deaths of Nestor Makhno