The new book is smart, sexy, and will teach you a few things.
“There’s something at stake when you start an essay.”
No one knows this better than Matt Ortile.
Credit: Mia Fermindoza; Bold Type Books
He does admit publishing and promoting a book while in the middle of a pandemic is a strange experience.
So now it feels like a sick twist, he shares.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Give us the elevator pitch.
Mia Fermindoza; Bold Type Books
This pandemic is hitting certain communities or demographics much harder than it is others.
It’s also really fun.
It’s fun and sexy.
I realized I wrote a really sexy book that I’m so excited about.
That was something that I felt really committed to when writing.
I dug deep into these things because I thought it gives the book a richer depth.
I thought it made it a more connected book.
There’s not enough work out there that revels in the intersections.
Throughout the book, you chart your relationship with the model minority myth.
Where are you on that journey now?
I can see it for what it is now.
I can spot it more easily and be more critical of it with confidence.
It was just a poisonous, but perfect, encapsulation of what the model minority myth is.
Its so much about bending to white supremacy and seeking the approval of whiteness while sacrificing everything else.
That has to be an ongoing conversation.
That’s something that we have had to deal with as queer people.
She went to Harvard, I went to Vassar… so very ivy-covered, brick buildings kind of fantasy.
She was a child star in the Philippines, I was not.
I wanted to be one.
Reading others and writing alongside others has been, honestly, so cool.
I’m really thankful for the opportunity.
There are instances where you get specific about your sex life.
What was putting that part of your experience on the page like for you?
It was really liberating.
Another chapter opens up with me literally holding onto a headboard for dear life while I was getting railed.
I thought about what it was that I really wanted.
Is it the sex?
I’m here baring all, and I want you to know that it’s fine.
I think so many people are scared of those moments, whether or not it’s related to sex.
I’m still working on unlearning.
Choosing to write those scenes was very important to me because I’m bringing you into my life.
I don’t want to censor any part of that.
You incorporated your feelings about writing the book throughout the essays.
Why did you choose to include that in the book?
It’s an ongoing process.
Pulling from your experience working at Catapult and writing this book, what makes a good essay?
I want to be entertained, and I want to learn something new.
Or I want you to challenge a preconception, an idea, a topic, or a conversation.
One thing I tell my writers at work is, “How is this pushing the conversation?
How is this developing the nuance of x, y, and z?”
People are very often afraid to blend the personal and the reported.
I think that makes it so much better.
We want to lean into these ideas.
None of us are unique, terribly unique at least.
Is that how it affects me, too?"
That’s what we do at Catapult with personal essays.
The very coastal road that is publishing, too.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Check out more features fromEntertainment Weekly’scelebration of LGBTQ pop culture.
