Blair Mastbaum (born January 24, 1979) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and a former model who lives in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Mastbaum fabricated a series of stories published by Atlas Obscura. The articles were retracted after investigations found plagiarism, fabricated quotes and interviews, and misinformation.

Career

Mastbaum acted in and produced the 2005

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

official competition film, '' Ellie Parker'', directed by his partner, Scott Coffey. He co-wrote the 2018 feature film, ''For Real'', also directed by Coffey.

Novels

''Clay's Way''

Mastbaum's first

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

, 2004's '' Clay's Way'', won a Lambda Literary Award.

''Us Ones In Between''

Mastbaum's second novel, ''Us Ones In Between'', published by

Running Press Running Press is an American publishing company and member of the Perseus Books Group. The publisher's offices are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with many of the corporate functions taking place in Perseus' New York City headquarters. I ...

and released in May 2008, centers on depressed art school graduate Kurt Smith, who fantasizes about pushing boys in front of

subway Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to: Transportation * Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems * Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle * Subway (George Bush Interconti ...

trains. The title is taken from the song "Us Ones In Between," written by

Spencer Krug Spencer Krug ( ) (born May 4, 1977) is a Canadian musician. He is the singer, songwriter and keyboardist for the indie rock band Wolf Parade and also records under the name Moonface. He has also performed with other Canadian bands including Sun ...

and performed by the band

Sunset Rubdown Sunset Rubdown is a Canadian art rock music group from Montreal. The band began as a solo project for Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade, who released his debut, '' Snake's Got a Leg'', in early 2005. By the next year the project expanded to become a fu ...

. The novel was a finalist for the 2008 Ferro-Grumley Award.

Other works

Mastbaum edited the anthology ''Cool Thing: The Best New Gay Fiction by Young American Writers'', released by Running Press on November 10, 2008.

References

Living people 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction winners Writers from Portland, Oregon 1979 births American gay writers Writers from Dayton, Ohio 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Ohio Novelists from Oregon 21st-century American LGBT people {{US-novelist-1970s-stub