Matthew J. C. Clark writes essays that are supposed to be about other people but that are often also about himself. His work has appeared in True Story, The Morning News, Ecotone, The Indiana Review, and The Antioch Review. His essay "6'3" Man with Doritos," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He holds an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa’s nonfiction writing program and was named the Maine Arts Commission’s 2018 Literary Fellow. At MacDowell in 2018, he completed a chapter of his book, The Wood Mill of Maine, Mercer, U.S.A. while in the Sorosis studio. The chapter had been particularly frustrating for him as it diverged from the objective literary journalism mode he often writes in and into a history of King Philip's War and a personal reckoning with his (and White America's) feelings of shame and guilt about the events of the past. At MacDowell in 2021, he completed the last two chapters of his nonfiction book, Bjarki, Not Bjarki.
Matthew J. C. Clark
Fellow Works Supported by MacDowell
Bjarki, Not Bjarki: On Floorboards, Love, and Irreconcilable Differences (Nonfiction Book)
Studios
Barnard
Matthew J. C. Clark worked in the Barnard studio.
Originally built near MacDowell's Union Street entrance, the Barnard Studio — which was funded by Barnard College music students — was re-located to its current site in 1910. When the small structure was moved, its size was doubled with the addition of a second room. This remodeling, financed by Mrs. Thomas E. Emery of Cincinnati…