Maud Newton

New York

Freelance Writer, Critic and Author at Freelance

Wrote ANCESTOR TROUBLE, a best book of 2022 per New Yorker, NPR, WaPo, more. John Leonard Prize Finalist. Account dormant since 10/28/2022.

Articles

McNally Jackson Book Fest with Lee Hawkins

2 months ago | maudnewton.com | Maud Newton

I’m looking forward to talking with Lee Hawkins, author of I Am Nobody’s Slave, for the first-ever McNally Jackson Book Festival! In conversation, we’ll explore the complexities of family history and the intergenerational legacies we carry. We’ll discuss race, inheritance, trauma, and resilience—and how confronting the past can offer hope for future generations. June 3, 6:30 pm, South Street Seaport.
NYPL Blog Recommends Ancestor Trouble

Mar 11, 2025 | maudnewton.com | Maud Newton

I love the New York Public Library, and am so grateful to history and genealogy librarian Serena Dresslar for recommending my book, Ancestor Trouble, in such outstanding company.
Art & Kinship: Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel

Mar 11, 2025 | maudnewton.com | Maud Newton

For the Art & Kinship installment in my latest newsletter, I write about Laila Lalami’s chilling new novel, The Dream Hotel, and the author reveals that her mother’s childhood in a Moroccan orphanage may have influenced the book.
The Awl: The Book, Shipping Now

Mar 10, 2025 | maudnewton.com | Maud Newton

The Awl: The Book, Shipping NowLast week my pal Carrie Frye, editor of The Awl: The Book, texted me these photos of The Awl anthology, with so many great essays from former contributors. The book includes my own 2011 essay on a Rapture prediction that didn’t pan out, just in case you’ve ever wondered how long I’ve been on the End Times beat (my whole life?). If you’d like a copy, more are available.
Meditations on Kinship: Maud Newton's Newsletter

Mar 10, 2025 | maudnewton.com | Maud Newton

March 10, 2025 I’ve renamed my newsletter from Ancestor Trouble — still a focus and preoccupation — to Meditations on Kinship, which better reflects the breadth of my thinking and feeling and seems like a capacious home going forward. After considering other options, I’m staying on Substack for now.
Maud Newton's Ancestor Trouble Positively Reviewed in National Genealogical Society Quarterly

Jan 16, 2025 | maudnewton.com | Maud Newton

January 17, 2025 I was surprised and delighted to discover a generous review of Ancestor Trouble by Deanna Korte in the latest issue of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.
Texas Monthly and I agree on y'all

Dec 7, 2024 | maudnewton.com | Maud Newton

December 8, 2024 I was tickled to be cited favorably in Texas Monthly for my letter of recommendation for “y’all,” the most inclusive pronoun. But Dan Solomon’s article on “y’all” as a perfect word is worth a read for more reasons than that. As a fifth-generation Texan who’s not really a Texan because I grew up in Miami and have lived in New York City for 25 years, I’m feeling as though I hit some “I’ve really made it now” metric I wasn’t aware I had.
Cities are also nature, the Earth reminds us

Dec 7, 2024 | maudnewton.com | Maud Newton

Under ordinary circumstances, living across the street from the woodlands of Forest Park in New York City is a balm, a medicine of the spirit. Right now, though, the trees are parched, and vulnerable—and, with my proximity to them, so am I. They’re a continual reminder of our interconnectedness, a testament to a conviction I’ve come to in recent years: cities are also nature, whether or not we’re willing to see them that way.
Taking T for Jesus

Aug 21, 2024 | thebaffler.com | Maud Newton

A few years ago, my then-eighty-year-old mom started taking testosterone to improve her health and sex life. As with most of her major life decisions, she got the idea from a guest on a televangelist’s talk show. The guests, Don Colbert, who bills himself as “America’s #1 Doctor for Faith and Preventative Medicine,” and his wife, Mary, contend that hormone therapy can keep elderly women (and men) in divine health.
Naught for Teacher

Apr 1, 2024 | thebaffler.com | Jennifer Berkshire |Lyta Gold |Maud Newton

The poll results were ominous. In a survey of Houston teachers in late 2023, more than 42 percent said they wouldn’t be returning for the next school year. That’s on top of the teachers who’ve recently left Texas’s largest school district. Between last August and early January 2024, 633 teachers resigned, more than double the number that left during the second pandemic school year of 2021–2022. Such data should be cause for alarm in a state that is now losing a record number of teachers.