I’m a journalist, researcher, and editorial strategist currently based in New York.

My writing on waste, inequality, and skyscrapers appears in publications like The Atlantic, The New Republic, and The Baffler.

Teaching and Research

As an MFA nonfiction fellow at Emerson College, I taught first-year writing courses in composition and creative writing and served as a research specialist for best-selling nonfiction authors and filmmakers, assisting with transcriptions, summaries, book proposals, and archival research. I also worked with the Boston Lit District on an interactive historic map and briefly served as interim business manager at Ploughshares.

Writing

In August 2023, I appeared on Chicago public radio’s “This Is Hell!” to discuss my New Republic article on Big Tech’s turn to waste and the emerging Cleanup-Industrial Complex.

My recent writing about cities for Majuscule earned Notables in Best American Essays and Best American Science & Nature Writing (2022, 2023). ”Urban Dopplegangers” explores the rise of city-builder video games (in households and boardrooms), and “The Vertical Wasteland” presents a speculative eulogy for the downtown office tower.

Previous essays on waste include a print feature on space junk and its profiteers for The Baffler’s issue no. 61, “Space Opera,” which followed similar critiques of ocean clean-up efforts and modern recycling.

My reportage for The Atlantic on modern-day secret societies and monolithic distribution centers were featured as “must-reads” on Re/code, Gizmodo, and Yahoo Finance. “Alone at the Top of the World,” an essay about the Burj Khalifa, was anthologized by Longreads.

A full list of published clips include 3:AM MagazineThe AtlanticThe BafflerBaltimore MagazineThe BillfoldBoston Globe MagazineBoston Review, CatapultThe Daily DotElectric LiteratureLiterary Hub, Los Angeles Review of BooksMajusculeThe MillionsNecessary FictionThe New Republic, New York Review of Architecture, Pacific StandardPublishers WeeklyQuartzRedividerThe Review ReviewThe Smart SetUSA Today.

Background

Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, I enrolled at NYU’s business school in the fall of 2009, in the wake of a financial crisis precipitated by its prominent alumni. While there, I exploited every travel stipend to study in London, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, and Abu Dhabi. I’ve since lived in Boston and Annapolis, before returning to Manhattan, where I currently reside with my wife and and our cavapoo, while paying the bills with a side-career in content marketing.

I’m available for reporting assignments, book reviews, interviews, essays, etc. at mattking25@gmail.com.