Rewriting And Rewriting More w. MATTHEW NEWTON

Episode 16

Matthew Newton is the author of Shopping Mall, out now in Bloomsbury Press’s Object Lessons series, and the Director of Publishing at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His work has been published by the Oxford American, the Atlantic's CityLab, Forbes, The Rumpus, Guernica, and Spin. He lives in Western Pennsylvania with his wife and two sons.  

Discussed In This Episode

Malls as civic spaces and emotional centers. Conversation pits! "The mall was the internet before the internet existed." Ruin porn. Victor Gruen, the shamed inventor of the shopping mall. Newspaper archives. Dawn of the Dead. That one chapter you have to keep rewriting. Urban renewal and the Rust Belt. "I feel a sense of obligation now to write about this place." Reimagining your work week. Giving yourself fun writing tasks. Backup plans for your backup plans and writing to suit your tendencies. Take the break. Roald Dahl's writing hut. Find your writing studio on Craigslist. Writing to David Axelrod and Brian Eno (with apologies to Philip Glass). Accountability groups. Writing about severe clinical depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. Honesty. "Who cares?" 

Recommended Reading

Shopping Mall, Matthew Newton
An American Childhood, Annie Dillard

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