Damon Young (writer)

Damon Young (born 1979) is an American writer and editor.


 * …You have to intentionally seek out community. You have to intentionally seek out spaces that are comfortable, that are welcoming. And I think that intentionality just bleeds into the work of people who are from Pittsburgh. It's not a place where you could just laze into blackness. You have to be hyper-cognizant of it…
 * On Blackness in the city of Pittsburgh in “Writer Damon Young On Being Black And The Absurdity Of It All” in NPR (2019 Apr 4)


 * I have a deep fear of hurting people…I don’t want to be seen as this kind of person. I don’t want my work to be seen as this type of work.
 * On the backlash he faced after writing a controversial article about sexual harassment in “White People Often Don’t See Damon Young. That’s About to Change.” in Mother Jones (March/April 2019)


 * I’m not this MFA or this academic. I didn’t come through a New York Times or New Yorker pipeline or whatever. I started a blog…Now I’ve written for some of those publications I’ve named, but I wasn’t brought up and groomed that way. Since I haven’t been, it would be fraudulent for me to try to be less accessible just because … that’s just not me.
 * On remaining authentic despite having more writing opportunities in “Damon Young on How to Make It as a Writer in the 2020s: "Move to Pittsburgh" in Inverse (2019 Jun 4)


 * Many cities are predominantly white in America, many larger cities; but with Pittsburgh, the whiteness there is a bit thicker, that it’s almost atmospherically white, spiritually white…
 * On the racial makeup of Pittsburgh in “Damon Young on How to Make It as a Writer in the 2020s: "Move to Pittsburgh" in Inverse (2019 Jun 4)