Glen Weldon is an American writer, cultural critic, and podcaster. He has written for publications such as ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', '' Slate'', ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', and ''

McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American non-profit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. Initially publishing the literary journal'' Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', the company has moved to ...

''. Weldon currently writes for the

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

Arts Desk and is a panelist on the podcast ''Pop Culture Happy Hour''.

Career

Weldon currently writes for the

Arts Desk and is a panelist on the podcast ''Pop Culture Happy Hour'' with

Linda Holmes Linda Holmes (born March 16, 1959) is a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 42nd District since January 2007. The 42nd district includes all or parts of Aurora, Boulder Hill, Montgomery, Naperville, North Aurora and ...

, Stephen Thompson, and Aisha Harris. In his work, Weldon often draws on his life experience as a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

man and a self-described "nerd". In addition to shorter fiction work appearing in anthologies and publications, he is the author of two non-fiction pop culture histories about

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

superheroes and

nerd culture A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...

. ''Superman: The Unauthorized Biography'', published in 2013, chronicled the history of Superman and his role as an iconic American figure. 2016's ''The Caped Crusade'' covered Batman's relevance through decades of popular culture. Weldon has earned an Arts Journalism Fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Fiction, a

Ragdale Ragdale is the former summer retreat of Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869–1926), located in Lake Forest, Illinois. It is also the home of the Ragdale Foundation, an artist residency program that hosts creators from a number of disc ...

Writing Fellowship, and an

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

Writers' Residency.

Personal life

Weldon grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He attended

Southampton College Stony Brook Southampton is a campus location of Stony Brook University, located in Southampton, New York between the Shinnecock Indian Reservation and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on the eastern end of Long Island. History Southampton College, L ...

and graduated with a degree in marine biology. On his NPR bio page, it is stated that he was "a completely inept marine biologist and a slightly better-ept competitive swimmer."

Works

* ''Superman: The Unauthorized Biography''. * ''The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture''. * "Of MSE-6 and Men" short story in '' From a Certain Point of View''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weldon, Glen Living people 21st-century American writers American film critics American podcasters American television critics NPR personalities Pew Fellows in the Arts American gay writers Southampton College alumni Year of birth missing (living people)