MacKenzie Scott is releasing her third novel for free on Substack throughout August, marking a significant return to public visibility for the billionaire philanthropist and author who has largely kept out of the spotlight since 2013.
Scott announced Saturday that she will self-publish “Last Days in Two Nations (A History in Eighteen Minds),” an 80,000-word novel, serially on the platform, according to Forbes. She shared the title page, table of contents, character list and epigraphs but provided few other details, encouraging readers to “read and subscribe.”
[STOCK: author writing desk Substack]
The release comes after a 13-year gap since her second novel, “Traps,” was published in 2013. Her debut novel, “The Testing of Luther Albright,” arrived in 2005 and won an American Book Award, earning recognition as one of the Los Angeles Times’ best books of the year. Scott studied creative writing at Princeton University under Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, who served as her senior thesis advisor and continued to mentor her through the publication of her first novel.
Scott’s decision to publish freely on Substack reflects a philosophy rooted in her approach to giving. In 2019, when she signed the Giving Pledge following her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, she opened her letter not with talk of foundations or strategy, but with a passage from Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life.” Dillard wrote: “The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now.” Scott took the writing advice and applied it to her wealth, becoming one of the world’s most prolific philanthropists.
Since 2019, Scott has donated more than $26 billion through her philanthropic organization, Yield Giving, to more than 2,700 groups including historically Black colleges and universities, environmental organizations, and economic equity nonprofits. In 2025 alone, she gave away $7.2 billion—more than Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos have donated over their entire lifetimes, according to Forbes estimates. Forbes named her the third-most generous philanthropist in the world this year, noting she has given away 46 percent of her net worth.
[STOCK: open book pages literature]
Her philanthropic style mirrors her literary restraint: she gives unrestricted checks with no applications, no progress reports, and almost no press. After the publication of “Traps,” Scott communicated with the public only through rare literary posts to her blog and website, maintaining a deliberate distance from the spotlight despite her vast wealth and influence. The August release of “Last Days in Two Nations” marks a rare public gesture from someone who has reshaped American philanthropy while remaining largely invisible to it.
Sources
- Forbes — reported Scott’s announcement of her third novel, its title, word count, and release schedule on Substack
- Inc — detailed Scott’s creative writing education under Toni Morrison at Princeton and Morrison’s mentorship through her first novel’s publication
- Fortune — documented Scott’s Giving Pledge letter drawing inspiration from Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life” and her philanthropic giving of $26 billion since 2019
- Britannica — confirmed publication dates and titles of Scott’s two previous novels and her American Book Award win
