Other Work/Volunteer Experience
Prior to finishing grad school in 2007, my life was mostly about school; since then, it’s been mostly about writing and editing. But before 2007, I did have a few interesting jobs. Teaching kids. From...
View ArticleEducation
Harvard University, Ph.D. in sociology, 2007. I studied the sociology of culture and the sociology of childhood. My dissertation was titled From Captains Courageous to Captain Underpants: Children’s...
View ArticleSocial Media
Facebook. Me personally, The Tangential, The Tangential Ruins Minneapolis, Unreality House, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Twin Cities Daily Planet arts coverage. Twitter. Me personally, The Tangential, The...
View ArticleTwin Cities Daily Planet
Since 2007 I’ve been proud to serve as associate editor and arts editor at the Twin Cities Daily Planet, an online community news source published by the nonprofit Twin Cities Media Alliance. I write...
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Ivory Tower Burning
Ivory Tower Burning is the name of a play I presented at the 2012 Minnesota Fringe Festival. The show earned praise from audiences and critics, including John Townsend at the Star Tribune (“exquisitely...
View ArticleWho am I?
In the format of the Twin Cities Daily Planet’s “Who is that?” profile series. Name: Jay Gabler Twitter: @JayGabler Website: jaygabler.com What’s your job? “I’m arts editor at the Twin Cities Daily...
View ArticleFuture Cities
The Tangential is a creative writing blog I co-founded in January 2011 with Becky Lang and Katie Sisneros. Our motto is, “Don’t be boring. Don’t suck.” Becky and Katie and I now co-edit The Tangential...
View ArticleKids, Culture, and New Media
It’s true, I wrote this book. Yeah, I don’t quite believe it either. I studied sociology from 1999-2007 at Harvard University, ultimately earning an A.M. and a Ph.D. in the subject. Along the way I...
View ArticleVisiting Critic at MCAD
As a freelance writer, I’ve contributed to publications ranging from Artforum.com to Life & Style to Paper Darts to Photo District News. I’m a primary author or editor of four books: Future Cities...
View ArticleUnreality House
Unreality House is a fictional world with characters whose lives are designed to be streamed via social media like all the other people whose lives you follow online. For a more thorough explanation of...
View ArticleFront Row Seat
“Front Row Seat” was the name of my movie column when I was a teenager writing for the magazine High 5. It later became the name of the arts column I wrote in the Twin Cities Daily Planet from 2008 to...
View ArticleThe Summer of 40
I’ve just published The Summer of 40, an essay about turning 40, in the form of a short e-book that’s available via Amazon. Here’s the description. What does it mean to turn 40 in 2015? A writer at the...
View ArticleAw Jeez: A ‘Fargo’ Podcast
For the second season of FX’s Fargo, I co-hosted — with Tracy Mumford — a recap podcast called Aw Jeez. The podcast was produced by MPR News, just downstairs from where I typically work in MPR’s music...
View ArticleTheater writing for City Pages
I’ve started writing about theater for City Pages — the Twin Cities’ alt weekly. I’ll be writing two pieces each week, one of which will appear in City Pages’ print edition. Read my City Pages writing...
View ArticleSexts from the Sea
In the very first days of 2011, Becky Lang, Katie Sisneros, and I started a pop culture and creative writing blog we called The Tangential (after considering a few other names). Five years later, we...
View ArticleOversharing: Live!
As part of our five-year anniversary celebration, The Tangential has announced a Minneapolis event called Oversharing: Live! We’ll share some of our most painfully honest confessions, and we’ll invite...
View ArticleThe Current’s Rock and Roll Book Club
In May 2015, I spearheaded the launch of The Current’s Rock and Roll Book Club: an online series of reviews and giveaways that let the station’s staff share some of the books they love. Among my...
View ArticlePrince books
I don’t do a lot of copyediting work — but when Paisley Park calls, you pick up the phone. In this case, the call came via Andrea Swensson: my colleague at The Current, who wrote four books published...
View ArticleStar Wars Playbill
I was honored to be asked, by the New York Philharmonic, to write the Playbill essay for their performances of the scores to four of John Williams’s iconic Star Wars film scores synced live to picture....
View Article2018 Page One Award
I was honored to receive a first-place 2018 Page One Award from the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, in the category of online arts and entertainment writing. The award was...
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