About MAB – Matt Browning Books

I Did a StoryCorps Interview. Here’s What Happened.

November 20, 2018 Matt Browning Comments 0 Comment

In September, I had the pleasure of stepping into an Airstream trailer in downtown Charleston with my friend, Tabitha Surface, microphones placed between us at a small table in a dimly lit booth with a silent facilitator in the corner watching over us, to record a conversation about being LGBT in Appalachia. It was part of StoryCorps, and it was truly moving. If you aren’t familiar with it, StoryCorps is a non-profit organization whose mission is to record, preserve and share the…

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Literary Tattoos

September 25, 2018 Matt Browning Comments 6 comments

a.k.a. “That Time I Got a Big-Ass Typewriter on My Arm” When I told my dad recently that I was getting a rather large tattoo of an antique typewriter on my arm, he asked, “Now, why do you do that?” It wasn’t judgmental or harsh in tone. It was simple inquiry. So simple, in fact, I didn’t know how to answer him. Mind you, both of my siblings have tattoos, so this was nothing new for my folks. My brother…

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Remembering Ellen’s Coming Out

December 3, 2017 Matt Browning Comments 1 comment

I watched “The Puppy Episode” 20 years later. Here’s what happened. I recently discovered that Ellen, Ellen Degeneres’s sitcom which ran on ABC from 1993 to 1998, is on Hulu! It’s funny as I’ve revisited the show how clearly I remember watching the episodes when they first aired – especially the infamous “Puppy Episode” from April 1997, in which Ellen’s character, Ellen Morgan, came out as a lesbian – just as Ellen Degeneres did herself in real life on the…

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Mountain Woman: Reflections on Life in the Appalachian Coalfields

November 18, 2016 Matt Browning Comments 24 comments

On a typical Sunday morning drive through Omar, W.Va., about 10 miles south of the Logan County seat, there’s little activity along the two-lane road that winds its way through the community. Once a bustling coal town nestled between the mountains, empty storefronts and pothole-lined streets suggest a place whose best days may be behind it. Yet election signs dot front yards, people gather at the lone filling station to discuss the day’s news, and the parking lots of the…

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Prolific and Diverse

June 26, 2016 Matt Browning Comments 0 Comment

"Learning to be prolific would be high on my list of the most valuable writing skills a professional writer can have." – Brent Hartinger The quote above, which Brent Hartinger recently made on his Facebook page, landed in my newsfeed at the most convenient time – a time when I was yet again questioning my future as a writer. As I’ve documented plenty of times on the blog, my journey has been stalled by rejection after rejection, even after…

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The Three-Name Effect

August 25, 2014 Matt Browning Comments 0 Comment

It works for Neil Patrick Harris. For Mary Chapin Carpenter. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Edgar Allan Poe. George Washington Carver. Martin Luther King and Mary Tyler Moore. Hell, even Kathie Lee Gifford. Not to mention all three of the kids from Home Improvement (who, by the way, are all like 30-something now. Just let that sink in.) Yes, folks, there is a countless number of three-name famous people across the entire celebrity spectrum. And when I first set out on this journey…

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Oh Yeah…I’m a Writer

April 4, 2014 Matt Browning Comments 0 Comment

Earlier this year, I posed a question to my fellow scribes, asking them what is their day job – because [spoiler alert!] a lot of us aren’t full-time authors. The comment feed on that post became populated with some interesting insights from those of us walking that tightrope of writing and day jobs and families and lives. And it’s that tightrope walk that’s kept me from posting to this blog in over a month. (Nobody tell Agent Steve, please.) It…

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I Write Because Buzzfeed Says So

February 1, 2014 Matt Browning Comments 0 Comment

“That is perhaps the greatest parody of journalism that I have ever seen.” – Julia Sugarbaker When did I know I was going to be a writer? Was it that summer day in 1994 I wrote a poem for no real reason at all? No. The winter day in 2008 I wrote the first page of Straightville? Nada. The day in 2012 when all this happened? Nope! The first time I ever actually knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I…

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The Best of 2013 in 2014

January 27, 2014 Matt Browning Comments 4 comments

[I wrote this piece in mid-December of last year, saved it as a draft, and completely forgot to publish it. Dummy. So despite being well into 2014 at this point, here are my favorite books of 2013.] I rather enjoy a good year-end “best of” list (even if NPR Books is tired of them). So when I started compiling my practically obligatory Best Books of 2013 list, it dawned on me that very few of the books I read this…

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New Year’s Resolutions

January 6, 2014 Matt Browning Comments 0 Comment

I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions. By mid-January (if we even make it that far), they’re forgotten about – swept under the rug like dust bunnies and little balls of cat hair. The “new” has worn off, the media buzz is gone, and we’ve settled back into our boring, old routines. Writers aren’t immune to this trend. There are blog posts galore, like this one, from authors resolving to do all sorts of very specific things, such as…

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