Matthew Sperling (born 1982) is a British-American novelist and academic.

His first novel, Astroturf, was published in 2018.[1][2] It was chosen as a best summer book by Joe Dunthorne in The Guardian[3] and as a Book of the Year by Rebecca Tamás in The White Review,[4] and was longlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019.[5] His second novel, Viral, was published in 2020,[6] and was chosen as Novel of the Week in The Sunday Telegraph.[7] Sperling was named among “important male novelists under 40” by James Marriott in The Times in 2020.[8]

Sperling was educated at Gravesend Grammar School and the University of Oxford, and is Associate Professor of Creative and Critical Writing at University College London.[9] He regularly writes about modern art for Apollo magazine.[10] He was a judge for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction in 2020.[11]

Works

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Fiction

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  • Astroturf (riverrun, 2018) ISBN 9781787471153
  • Viral (riverrun, 2020) ISBN 9781529401950

Literary Criticism

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Interviews

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  • "Creatives in profile: interview with Matthew Sperling", Nothing in the Rulebook (September 2020)[14]

References

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  1. ^ "Astroturf by Matthew Sperling: A brawn cocktail that nails the zeitgeist". irishtimes.com. 1 September 2018. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  2. ^ "Body doubles: Toxic masculinity on steroids". the-tls.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  3. ^ "Best Summer Holiday Reads 2018". The Guardian. 8 July 2018. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  4. ^ "Books of the Year". thewhitereview.org. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  5. ^ "2019". wellcomebookprize.org. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  6. ^ "Capitalism, not sex: Grasping for control of the memes of production in Viral by Matthew Sperling and Docile by K. M. Szpara". the-tls.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  7. ^ Kerridge, Jake (20 September 2020). "Novel of the week: Viral by Matthew Sperling". The Sunday Telegraph.
  8. ^ "Booker Prize 2020 longlist: where are the new male hotshot novelists?". thetimes.co.uk. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  9. ^ "Dr Matthew Sperling". ucl.ac.uk. 30 April 2018. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  10. ^ "Matthew Sperling, Author at Apollo Magazine". Apollo Magazine. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  11. ^ "JUDGES ANNOUNCED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION AND THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING". orwellfoundation.com. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  12. ^ O’Hanlon, Karl (2016). "Visionary Philology: Geoffrey Hill and the Study of Words by Matthew Sperling". Modernism/Modernity. 23 (2): 486–488. doi:10.1353/mod.2016.0033. ISSN 1080-6601. S2CID 148342908.
  13. ^ James Underwood (2016). "Book Review: Visionary Philology: Geoffrey Hill and the Study of Words by Matthew Sperling (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)". The Modern Language Review. 111 (4): 1131. doi:10.5699/modelangrevi.111.4.1131. JSTOR 10.5699/modelangrevi.111.4.1131.
  14. ^ "Creatives in profile: interview with Matthew Sperling". nothingintherulebook.com/. Retrieved 2024-02-18.