no reason to pretend

About

Homepage for the website of author, reporter, critic, and editor Stephen Kearse.

I'm Stephen Kearse, a journalist and author.

I work as an assistant editor at Spotlight PA and a contributing writer at The Nation, and I freelance all over.

My writing portfolio can be found here, and my author pages for Pitchfork, The Nation, The Baffler, and Rolling Stone feature all my work for those pubs. I mostly write music, book, and film criticism.

I’ve written two novels: Liquid Snakes and In the Heat of the Light. Buy them online or at a bookstore, request them at your local library, and review them on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, etc. Also check out my three short stories: “Neighborhood Bakery,” available online at Joyland; “Retriever,” available online at Plotter; and “THE BULLET,” available in Issue 8 of FIYAH. I am represented by Danielle Bukowski of Sterling Lord Literistic.

I am a reporter as well: Past subjects I’ve reported on include modern fandom, civil rights cold cases, food labeling, the history of content ratings, the dictionary of Words With Friends, and critical race theory. I’ve also profiled a controversial YouTuber and a contrarian film critic.

Message “sfkearse” [at] gmail to reach me about tips, corrections, questions, assignments, and media appearances. I’ve previously been on BBC Radio, Popcast, the New York Times Book Review Podcast, the Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast, IN SYNC, and Culture Fit, among other shows.

See you around and thanks for reading.

-SK