Matt Ortile
"As a writer, I think we have a tendency to want things to have a tidy ending. You would like to say, this is what I have gone through, and this is what I have learned, this is when it all ends, this is when it all was solved. And I think this can be kind of a disservice… a limitation on where the story could go afterwards. "
Matt Ortile's “The Groom Will Keep His Name: And Other Vows I’ve Made About Race, Resistance, and Romance” that explores how he internalized racist "model minority" myths about how he should live his life. Over the course of his unforgettable (and often hilarious) essay collection a new story emerges - the true story of who he is and can be once those myths are shattered.
"Weaving stories together about his life and the history of the marginalized communities he belongs to, Ortile seamlessly brings readers into the intersections of his experiences."―Alamin Yohannes, EW.com
Hailed by Oprah as one of the LGBT books responsible for “changing the literary landscape of 2020,” Kirkus Reviews raves that “Groom” is “an intellectually ambitious, politically engaged, ideologically sensitive memoir.” Matt Ortile is the executive editor of Catapult magazine and frequently contributes to Condé Nast Traveler. In 2019 he received a MacDowell Fellowship, and he has also written for BuzzFeed News and Vogue and Out magazines.