Matt Ortile

Instructor & Writer
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Matt Ortile is the author of the essay collection The Groom Will Keep His Name and the co-editor of the nonfiction anthology Body Language. He is also the executive editor of Catapult magazine and was previously the founding editor of BuzzFeed Philippines. He has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and MacDowell; has taught workshops for Kundiman, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and PEN America; and has written for Esquire, Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, Out magazine, and BuzzFeed News, among others. He is a graduate of Vassar College, which means he now lives in Brooklyn.

Classes

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Stories

Cover Photo: This photograph shows a seagull flying high above the viewer against a bright blue sky with a few wispy clouds. The seagull is positioned in such a way that it almost feels like it's looking down at us.
In an Essay, Let Us Borrow Your Eyeballs—or Anyone Else’s, Really, Even a Bird’s

Meaning is an abstract concept. It needs a container. Concrete details are those vessels, the building blocks, the foundation of a good essay.

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Matt Ortile
Oct 17, 2022
Don’t Write Alone | Free Write
Cover Photo: A photograph of four people around a table, smiling and clinking glasses over a spread of food.
Translating for My Friends Is My Love Language

Whenever I travel, I make a point to speak the local language as much as possible.

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Matt Ortile
Sep 28, 2022
Catapult | What's The Word
Cover Photo: A man holding up a magnifying glass to investigate . . . himself!
How to Write Personal Essays Through Who You Are

This exercise is meant to let you use a part of your identity as a perspective, rather than just a subject that you’re putting under pressure and scrutiny.

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Matt Ortile
Jun 30, 2022
Don’t Write Alone | Free Write
Cover Photo: Photograph courtesy of the author
Wherever I Am, I Write From a Place of Grief

Walang katapusan ang dalamhati. What else can I do but live through it? Write through it?

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Matt Ortile
Jun 23, 2022
Don’t Write Alone | Where We Write
Cover Photo: A Polaroid-style photo collage of the author, Matt Ortile, taken across various indoor and outdoor restaurant tables. Handwritten at the bottom of each photo is the number of days that have passed since his mother's death: 14 days later, 617 days later, 434 days later, and 311 days later.
How to Date While You’re Grieving

The point of dating is to get to know another person. It’s a process made more confusing when, in my grief, I’m getting reacquainted with myself.

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Matt Ortile
Mar 15, 2022
Columns | Grief At A Distance
Cover Photo: A photograph of the actress Sarah Jessica Parker, playing Carrie Bradshaw, in HBO Max's 'And Just Like That.' She is wearing a black long-sleeved top, a black fascinator hat, and a wide dark skirt. She stands against a bare white wall behind the backs of six white chairs.
‘And Just Like That’ Isn’t Perfect, But It Gets Grief Right

In the ‘Sex and the City’ reboot, Carrie Bradshaw’s arc is one of the most truthful depictions of mourning I’ve ever seen on TV.

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Matt Ortile
Feb 07, 2022
Columns | Arts & Culture | Grief At A Distance
Cover Photo: a screencap of the @publishersbrunch Instagram account
Publishers Brunch Believes Book Memes Can Bring Us Together

In an interview with Catapult magazine, Publishers Brunch shares how Instagram memes foster a sense of community in the publishing industry.

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Matt Ortile
Feb 03, 2022
Don’t Write Alone | Interviews
Cover Photo: A black and white portrait photograph of Princess Diana. She is staring at the camera and smiling very slightly.
My Mom, Princess Diana, and Me

At what point does someone we’ve lost become only a story we tell, more myth than memory?

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Matt Ortile
Nov 08, 2021
Columns | Grief At A Distance
Cover Photo: A dining table on which sit a laptop, a notebook, magazines (Condé Nast Traveler and The New Yorker), a book (The Best American Travel Writing 2021), and a glass of wine (grüner veltliner)
Where Matt Ortile Writes

I try to be agnostic about where I write; I never have an excuse to not.

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Matt Ortile
Oct 18, 2021
Don’t Write Alone | Where We Write
Cover Photo: collage consisting of several photos of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and the author baking them
Baking My Mother’s Recipes Keeps Her Near

Baking was solely Mom’s domain, I believed, and cooking for her was mine.

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Matt Ortile
Aug 04, 2021
Columns | Grief At A Distance