Matthew Shaer

Biography

Matthew Shaer is a former staff writer at the Christian Science Monitor, and an occasional contributor to the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and Bookforum, among other publications. He is writing a book about Brooklyn.

See Work

CRITICISM / Spring 2010

Understanding Mathilda

By Matthew Shaer
CRITICISM

Hearts and minds: What’s the connection between writers and poker?

By Matthew Shaer

How can a game—so simple on its face—be the subject of so much fantastic, engrossing, downright smart literature?

PROFILES

Remembering Updike

By Matthew Shaer

Back in the 1980s, my parents bought their first home, in Georgetown, Massachusetts, from a writer named John Updike.

CRITICISM

A Detective for a Topsy-Turvy World

By Matthew Shaer

Retro-noir fiction makes a comeback, courtesy of the Hard Case Crime imprint.

ESSAYS

Speak (Correctly), Memory!

By Matthew Shaer

“Angel at the Fence” again raises the question of the rules of memoir.

ESSAYS

Home Alone

By Matthew Shaer

Combating the myth of urban loneliness.

CRITICISM

A Pinch of Abatement

By Matthew Shaer

The new grammar of Bond.