Matthew Stadler

Matthew Stadler is a writer and editor who lives in Portland, Oregon. He has written four novels and received several awards and fellowships in recognition of his work. More recently, he has compiled four anthologies about literature, city life and public life. His essays have been published in magazines and museum catalogs around the world, and focus on architecture, urban planning and the problem of sprawl.

"Sprawl is the disappearance of an idea," Stadler writes in the annotated reader, Where We Live Now, "So how can we go on speaking of the city and the country, yet not remain fixed in the downward spiral of loss?" Stadler's numerous essays and larger projects, such as suddenly.org explore this question by looking for better language and new descriptions. While there is significant overlap, Stadler's work can usefully be broken down into three areas: novels; sprawl and urbanism; publishing and public space.