Welcome to Homesick, a weekly newsletter about place, identity, belonging, and the many threads between. As a topic, “home” is both incredibly narrow and wildly broad. Narrow in how personal histories, geography, and familial ties anchor us in place and time. But broad in the sense that home also exists in memory and travels with us across decades, borders, oceans, and time zones. In simple terms, Homesick is a biography of place, and its name is inspired by that feeling of emotional distress when you are away from home, in a new and unfamiliar environment. Look closer, however, and it reveals layers, associations, assumptions, and interpretations that offer infinite paths to explore.
Homesick is researched, written, edited, and published by Matthew Newton. That’s me. I'm a Pittsburgh-based writer, editor, and arts worker whose work examines the intersections between class, culture, community, art, and politics. My writing has appeared in Aperture, Artforum, Guernica, the Oxford American, The Paris Review Daily, 3:AM, Spin, Forbes, and more. I have been a commentator on NPR and Al Jazeera America, and I am the author of Shopping Mall (Bloomsbury), a book that looks at the curiosity, ritual, and fantasy of the American mall. For nearly a decade, I also worked at Carnegie Museum of Art and The Andy Warhol Museum, where I managed each institution’s publishing program. Today, in my editorial practice, I work with art museums, nonprofits, cultural institutions, universities, and publishers on an expansive range of projects—from books, monographs, and exhibition catalogs to editorial style guides, in-gallery didactic texts, and digital publishing initiatives.
An amalgam of cultural criticism, memoir, and reportage, Homesick exemplifies my restlessness as a writer who has never been content to cover a single topic and make it my beat. Instead, I write about what interests me, and if readers follow along, that’s a bonus. If the account of a random phone call with underground comics legend Harvey Pekar is up your alley, or if a detailed look at the empathetic photography of LaToya Ruby Frazier piques your curiosity, Homesick is for you. If a deep dive into Ocean Vuong and the poetics of sincerity, or a close reading of Hua Hsu’s Stay True, his brilliant memoir about friendship and grief, sound too good to miss, subscribe today.
Homesick is published on Tuesday mornings. When it arrives, you can expect one of the following types of stories:
Dispatches: Shortform, blog-like posts that examine the world through the lenses of art, film, literature, music, and more.
Essays: Thoughtful, incisive, and far-reaching writing on topics personal, political, and provocative. Sometimes a long read. Other times short.
Interviews: Longform conversations with artists, filmmakers, historians, musicians, writers, and more, where we talk about their work and its relationship to their place in the world.
Homesick is free. But it is also reader-supported. Paid subscriptions are scheduled to resume later this fall. In the meantime, you can leave a tip via PayPal. Your contribution keeps the lights on.
If you are interested in contacting me, please email mr.newton@gmail.com. You can also find me on Instagram, X, and LinkedIn, or visit my website.
