My name is Matt Colquhoun [kuh-hoon] [they/them] and I am a writer and photographer from Hull, UK.
I am best known for writing about the work of Mark Fisher. My first book, Egress (2020), explored questions of community and grief in the aftermath of Fisher’s death at Goldsmiths, University of London. I have since edited Fisher’s Postcapitalist Desire lectures (2021) and contributed numerous essays to reissues and translations of his works.
My most recent book, Narcissus in Bloom (2023), presents an alternative reading of the selfie and its relationship to narcissism, which I argue is less a postmodern pathology and more a symptom of a broader political discontent and desire for (self-)transformation.
As of late 2022, I am a PhD student in the philosophy department at Newcastle University, working under the supervision of Drs Stephen Overy, Lorenzo Chiesa and Shreyaa Bhatt. Tentatively titled One or Several Mothers, my thesis explores literary representations of adoption, family abolition, and the politics of displacement through the writings of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.
I’ve spoken about my work at events hosted across Europe in Slovenia, Hungary, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Poland, Greece, Italy, the Czech Republic, Estonia, and the UK.
When not blogging or writing, I pull pints at the Cumberland Arms in Newcastle and work as a freelance proofreader and copyeditor, most regularly for Repeater Books. In another life, I held the role of exhibitions coordinator at Ffotogallery, BAFTA, and D&AD Festival, and my photographs have been exhibited and published around the UK, as well as in France and Japan.
Currently hosting the “New Tenderness” show on Slack’s Radio, I have previously co-organised the For k-punk event series with Natasha Eves and others, and co-hosted the Buddies Without Organs podcast with Sean Oscar and Corey J White.
If you would like to hire me, have questions about the blog and its content, want to translate something published here, or just want to say hello, please email matt@xenogothic.com.
For enquiries related to my books, such as acquisition of translation rights, please contact Repeater Books directly.
TL;DR
Matt Colquhoun is a writer and photographer from Hull, UK. Best known for writing about the late Mark Fisher, their most recent book, Narcissus in Bloom, was published by Repeater Books in 2023. Currently a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Newcastle University, they blog at xenogothic.com.
Image: Sugar Loaf Tunnel, 2008 by Iain Colquhoun.
