Writing
Essays, criticism, fiction, poetry, and reporting—from Alaska to New York, from the gallery to the concert hall.
Earlier work was published under the name Matt Caprioli; the hyphen in Frye-Castillo is a choose-your-own-adventure situation. Click here for why.
Some older clips link to the publisher when the original article is unavailable.
Literary criticism & book reviews
Image: The Gay & Lesbian Review
The Right to Slay
What changes when queer characters become agents of violence? An essay on gay murder narratives that challenges respectability as the price of representation.
Read the essay →We continued the conversation about queer literary history on Ivory Tower Boiler Room →
Literary & cultural criticism 13
- Essex Hemphill and the Radical Power of Black Queer Love
- How Queer T-Shirts Became Powerful Tools of Identity and Activism
- The Daniels: On Four Latine Authors Named Daniel, Parts I & II
Two essays on Latine fiction, cultural inheritance, and the possibilities of decolonial storytelling.
- Hearing Muted Music: Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns
A critical essay on Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.
- Edgar Gomez’s Intricate and Emotive Memoir, High-Risk Homosexual
- This Town Sleeps is an Emotional Wrought Tale of Community and Redemption
- The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy
- Fight No More, by Lydia Millet
- Memoir queen Mary Karr delivers a new stunner with 'Tropic of Squalor'
- The Paris Review staff picks: The American Isherwood
- Staff Picks: No Conscience, No Hope, No October
- Staff Picks: Padded Panels, Pushcart Peddlers, Pommes D’Air
- When Silence Speaks Volumes
Jeannie Vanasco and the complexities of a mother–daughter relationship.
Personal essays & memoir
One Headlight
In 2002, a twelve-year-old lands in Anchorage, and his mother picks him up in a church-donated Mustang with no passenger window and one working headlight. One Headlight follows a queer, working-class boyhood on Lazy Mountain, an escape to New York, and the long road back to care for the woman at its center.
“An affecting and surprising remembrance about the responsibilities of parents and children.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Like no other book I have read. It will entertain you as it crushes you.”
Martha Amore, co-editor of Building Fires in the Snow
Personal essays 8
All That Beauty
Sia’s music becomes a companion through self-undoing, the desire for recognition, and the work of finding a way back to myself.
Read the essay →My video from Sia’s 2016 tour at Barclays Center in Brooklyn—the performance that inspired this essay.
Watch my concert video on YouTube ↗- A Boy's State
- The Bradbury: Reading (and Writing) Whatever
- On continually learning from Audre Lorde
- BVSteven
- Escort Surgery
A young escort visits a surgeon near Columbus Circle. What begins as a routine appointment turns into an unnerving examination, as he tries to read his client’s intentions and get home safely.
- Finding Héctor
Speculative nonfiction about family memory and the search for a brother.
- How Books Shaped My Life as a Gay Escort
In anthologies 4
- “Matt Caprioli” in Worn in New York
Moving from Alaska to New York, I find an unexpected kind of liberation through a surprise jockstrap. My contribution to Emily Spivack’s collection later appeared in Netflix’s Worn Stories (2021).
- “Lord Knows” in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
Coming out to my grandmother: a conversation across generations about the risk of being known and the possibility of being met with love.
- “Lord Knows” in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Moms
- “Escort Surgery” in Best Gay Stories 2017
Reprinted in the anthology edited by Joe Okonkwo.
Fiction & poetry
Visual arts
The Persistence of Morgan O’Hara
A portrait of an artist whose drawings turn everyday movement into a record of attention, persistence, and human connection.
Read the profile →Artist profiles & conversations 6
- John Hirst Will Be Your Mirror
My first professional story: a profile of the Craigslist artist John Hirst.
- Glam God Descends on Anchorage: Alaska Fashion Week welcomes Indashio
- Top 10: Photo Fantastic — Anchorage's Top Instagrammers
- Dallas Wildeve: The Wild Florist of Anchorage
- Leslie Kimiko Ward: Fighting suicide, one fold of paper at a time
- Photographer James Venuti at BWAC
A pharmacy manager’s other life: seeing familiar New York landmarks anew.
Gallery reviews & art criticism 7
- Pictures from the Real World
- What Happens When We Leave Traditional Models of Art Interpretation Behind?
- Still Time to Catch the Iceberg at Kentler
- Looking for True North
- Drew Michael and Elizabeth Ellis: Facing what ails us
- Revenge of the critters: Exhibit gives small things celebrity treatment
- Adam Ottavi: a Lasting Impression
Music
- Hard Knox — Marquise Knox
An interview with blues musician Marquise Knox.
Interviews & music profiles 10
- Pairing wine and vinyl with Cinderblock People, part II
- Pairing wine and vinyl with Cinderblock People, part I
- E.J. Simpson
- Forgotten Visionaries: Mrs. President
- Folk music is music of the people
- Story time with The Zolas
- Kid Koala, looking back and moving forward
- Interview with XNY
- Reading into Junip: Interview with José González
- Europe’s “folktronica” band, Crystal Fighters, is just searching for a little truth
Albums, EPs & live reviews 27
- On CYRRCA’s eponymous debut album
- Why we fell in love with Jordan Mackampa
- MARINA on becoming human with “Fear + Love”
- Saya drops “Cheap Thrills” EP
- Punctual review: summer beats right on time
- TUFT releases debut album “Look Look”
- Charlotte Day Wilson debuts with “CDW”
- Three great bands from CMJ Thursday
- Mammut and Stolen Jars at CMJ
- Recapping CMJ Saturday with BØRNS, Garrett Borns and Kate Nash
- Ryn Weaver
- Painted Palms’ “Horizons”
- Django Django blazes through New York
- Maribou State’s “Portraits”
- Django Django “Born Under Saturn”
- Avid Dancer’s “1st Bath”
- Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival in review
- Arum Rae “Waving Wild” album review
- Kate Tempest’s “Everybody Down” is a lyrical revolution
- Less is more. Fink releases “Hard Believer”
- In New York with ASTR
- Devon Sproule & Mike O’Neill “Colours”
- Album review: Infinity Shred “Sanctuary”
- Deep, dark new EP from Lorn, “Debris”
- Album review: Jane’s Party “Hot Noise”
- Album review: Hospital Ships “Destruction In Yr Soul”
- EP review: The Bug, “Filthy”
Stage & screen
Red Hook Move It!
At a neighborhood dance festival, three New York troupes bring Bomba, Afro-Haitian dance, and street performance into a shared celebration of community.
Read the piece →Film & television 6
Theater, dance & performance 20
- BodyVox breathes theatricality into modern dance
- An Immaculate Audition
- Great Books, Great Play
- An Imperfect 'Pippin'
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- Links Hijinks
- Rock and Roll Revival
- An Inter(e)view with Miss Witherspoon
- A Wrinkle In Time
- Comic 'Carnage'
- Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Iambic Intrigue
- Going Green: Shrek
- American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose
- Spring Awakening
- Die Fledermaus
- Anything Goes at Mama D’s
- Pearl D'Amour: Lost in the Meadows
- Quixotic Journey
- Jeff Dunham: Playing with dolls
Reporting & opinion
- Letter to the Editor: Disappointing Cuts
- The Hidden Histories of the Mary A. Whalen
A working waterfront, a historic tanker, and the stories a city carries.
News, community & features 12
- Strike a Pose: Inside Anchorage's Most Popular Yoga Studios
- The Arts Mean Business
- Home for the Arts
- Art: There's An App for That
- Legalizing Love: The struggle for gay rights in Alaska continues
- A Celebration for All Souls
- Kevin Patterson takes the helm of Anchorage Opera
- Personal Crisis Led to Cheseto's Disappearance
Original reporting for The Northern Light on Marko Cheseto’s disappearance.
- New York’s Most Popular Writing Method You’ve Never Heard Of
- Signs of the Times
- Drink Sustainably: Heineken's Fight to Remain a Global Sustainability Leader
- Transformative Experience
Professional writing
Technology, business & commissioned articles 13
- Making IT the Hero with Platform Solutions and Agile Development
- 4 Reasons Why Microsoft & Nintex are Perfect for Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)
- 3 Ways to a Modern SharePoint User Experience — Webcast Takeaways
- Part 2: SharePoint On-Premises vs. Online vs. Hybrid — The Value of using a Hybrid Setup
- Part 1: SharePoint On-Premises vs. Online vs. Hybrid — What’s the Best Approach?
- 5 Pitfalls of SharePoint Adoption
- How Docker and containers improved software development at eZ
- Pourquoi Instagram est un bon réseau social pour le marketing B2B
- Instagram et le B2B, un mauvais ménage ? Pas si sûr
- What's New This October in Open Source CMS
- Ixonos creates innovative app with eZ Publish Platform for Viking Line passengers
- Business Strategy Statement for PBDC-FG
Commissioned writing.
- Interview with former eBay and HP CEO Meg Whitman
Professional research interview.
Forewords for the Classics Imprint 13
- Foreword to Hamlet
- Foreword to Macbeth
- Foreword to Much Ado About Nothing
- Foreword to Taming of the Shrew
- Foreword to Anne of Green Gables
- Foreword to A Room with a View
- Foreword to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Foreword to Great Expectations
- Foreword to Heart of Darkness
- Foreword to Little Women
- Foreword to Moby Dick
- Foreword to Gulliver's Travels
- Foreword to The Picture of Dorian Gray
I wrote more than 200 summaries of literature and business books for SuperSummary between 2016 and 2018. The titles below are listed in my writing CV.
Literary study guides & summaries 62
- A Discourse on Method
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Ceremony
- City of Ashes
- Das Kapital
- Four Perfect Pebbles
- Gaudy Night
- 'night, mother
- I Know What You Did Last Summer
- Love's Labor's Lost
- Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- The Merchant of Venice
- Metropolis
- Murder on the Orient Express
- Running in the Family
- She's Come Undone
- Tender Is the Night
- the Andromeda Strain
- The Great Santini
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret
- The Overcoat
- The Shipping News
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Year of Magical Thinking
- This Earth of Mankind
- Through the Looking Glass
- Timon of Athens
- Uncle Vanya
- Wieland
- High Fidelity
- The Magicians
- The Time Traveler's Wife
- Home to Harlem
- Dust Tracks on a Road
- Boy, Snow, Bird
- Chickamauga
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- Elsewhere
- Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
- The Beautiful Struggle
- Portnoy's Complaint
- My Brother Sam Is Dead
- Waiting for Snow in Havana
- Not Without Laughter
- The Daughter of Time
- The Lathe of Heaven
- We Were Liars
- We Need to Talk About Kevin
- True Grit
- The Wretched of the Earth
- The Glory Field
- Sweeney Todd
- La Casa de Bernarda Alba
- Many Lives Many Masters
- The Wanderer
- The Sorcerer's Stone
- Goodbye, Mr. Chips
- Fiddler on the Roof
- Coraline
- Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
- Black Elk Speaks
- City of Thieves
Works in Progress
Novel
Ligatures
A father in Alaska goes all in on his son’s dream of becoming a figure skater, whatever it costs them both.
Screen
Over the Rainbow
A half-hour comedy about five seniors in Florida battling to keep their LGBTQ+ retirement home open.
Listen to the Band
A limited series about a mother and son following their artistic dreams, based on the lives of Bette Nesmith Graham and Michael Nesmith.
Walking Down In Hand
A feature following two queer teenagers in Anchorage from very different worlds.
Conversion
An anthology dramedy about persuasion, from religious entrepreneurs and marketing managers to builders of AI data centers and unhoused shelters.
Stage
Russian Dressing
A comedy about unpaid interns at a famous magazine.
Dirty Rotten Twink
A dramedy following the decades-long friendship of five queer people who met at a sex club in their early twenties.
RUN-HIDE-FIGHT
A drama about a college classroom during an active shooter drill.
master-slave
A comedy asking what the Greek Gods will do now that their jobs have been automated.
Web & television
Hire Ed
A six-part comedic web series about an earnest adjunct whose interviews for a history professorship tend to implode.
Spec scripts
Hacks, Primo & Elsbeth
Scripts for Hacks, Primo, and Elsbeth are available by request.