Rye Brook resident Dan Schorr prosecuted sex crimes in the Westchester District Attorney’s Office, and now investigates sexual misconduct allegations at his firm, Dan Schorr LLC. His second novel Open Bar, which is published by SparkPress and distributed by Simon & Schuster, follows the chaotic fallout when a high-profile sexual misconduct scandal rocks a prominent university.
Kirkus Reviews calls Open Bar “A timely and absorbing novel that asks what it costs to tell the truth” and says, “Schorr’s prose is clean, fast-moving, and often laced with dark humor.” The American Fiction Awards named Open Bar as this year’s Winner in the Thriller: Political category.
River Journal asked Schorr to tell us a little more about his latest novel, what inspired the story, and his writing process.
River Journal: How did your personal experiences lead to the writing of Open Bar?
Dan Schorr: I grew up with a mother who was a high school English teacher and gave me a love of novels at a young age, then I majored in English in college with a dream of being a writer. I was constantly exposed to great books and others who loved reading. After law school, I became a sex crimes prosecutor, and my current non-writing work involves numerous campus sexual misconduct investigations. Based on these experiences, for Open Bar I was interested in writing about some of the real-world, problematic situations occurring at colleges and universities around the country, especially large-scale sexual misconduct scandals and how educational institutions, corporations, and government officials respond to them in less-than-ideal ways which don’t best serve sexual abuse survivors.
RJ: What sparked the idea for this book?
DS: Four years ago, I was eagerly preparing for the publication of my debut novel Final Table and trying to figure out an idea for a follow-up novel. As I biked with my family on a nice summer day on the Bronx River Parkway, I started thinking about some of the chaotic and toxic situations I’ve seen develop as companies and universities seek to investigate complex, high-profile sexual misconduct investigations. I know, I really need to think about more relaxing things when biking. I began to consider how the news media often covers such cases, but they’re generally unable to tell the inside story of the real behind-the-scenes problematic battles when campus, corporate, and local political interests don’t neatly align with seeking justice for those involved. That was the beginning of my journey to writing Open Bar.
RJ: What’s your favorite part about being an author?
DS: Writing is very cathartic. There’s nothing else like it. One reason I love fiction writing is because, like everyone, I have many personal experiences that, if I wrote about them publicly in a memoir or in an essay, it would be highly inappropriate. But I’ve been able to write about them in fiction in Final Table and Open Bar and been told they’re interesting, creative, and (sometimes) funny. Then when I tell some people these scenes are based on my real experiences, they don’t really believe me.
RJ: Where can people learn more about you and your writing?
DS: I write a weekly Substack newsletter about fiction reading and writing, and anyone can subscribe for free at substack.danschorr.com. More information about Open Bar and my first novel Final Table is also available at my author website danschorrbooks.com.
Open Bar: A Novel
By Dan Schorr
Publisher: Spark Press – August 2025
Price: $17.99
