- Matthew O'Brien
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Matthew O'Brien Born Washington, D.C. Occupation Author, editor, journalist Nationality 
United StatesGenres Creative nonfiction Subjects Homelessness, Las Vegas, Urban exploration Notable work(s) Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas
My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas
beneaththeneon.comMatthew "Matt" O'Brien (born in Washington, D.C.) is an American author and journalist who's lived in Las Vegas since 1997.
Contents
Career
O'Brien, who grew up in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, graduated in 1988 from Decatur High School, where he was a point guard on the basketball team, and from the University of West Georgia in 1995. He was a staff writer, news editor and managing editor of the alternative weekly Las Vegas CityLife from 2000 to 2008. While at the paper, he co-wrote two cover stories about exploring the underground flood channels of Las Vegas after reading about Timmy "TJ" Weber, who was suspected (and later convicted) of murdering his girlfriend and her son, raping her daughter and attempting to kill another son. Weber used the drains to evade the police.[1] In the storm drains, O'Brien discovered hundreds of homeless people living in them. His adventures in the underground flood channels are detailed in his book Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas, released in June 2007.[2]
Beneath the Neon has been reviewed or written about by more than 100 media outlets, including Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Wired,[3] Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Nightline, "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric," Al Jazeera,[4] CNN, NPR, the BBC,[5] the Associated Press, and other national and international media outlets have done stories about the tunnels and the tunnel-dwellers.[6][7][8][9]
CNN's Michael Cary went into the tunnels with O'Brien and described him as "an expert on the more than 300 miles of underground flood channels and its tunnel dwellers."[10]
O'Brien's second book, My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas, released November 15, 2010, is a collection of creative-nonfiction stories set in off-the-beaten-path Vegas, including a seedy motel on East Fremont Street that's known for prostitution, street drug dealing, and violence.[11]
O'Brien is founder of Shine a Light, a community project that provides housing, drug counseling, and other services to homeless people living in the drains.[12] In a January 2011 article, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described O'Brien's work in the tunnels "turned into a 4½-year obsession for O’Brien, where he wound up documenting a population he suspects no one except a handful of police officers knew existed."[13] CBS News correspondent Seth Doane, who went underneath the Las Vegas Strip with O'Brien in the summer of 2010, wrote that "O'Brien's interest has turned into advocacy" in his efforts to help the homeless.[14]
American Public Media's "The Story" segment covered O'Brien's efforts to help homeless people when they interviewed O'Brien and featured a homeless man in April 2011.[15]
Awards
O'Brien was the recipient of two Artists Fellowship grants awarded by the Nevada Arts Council for 2010 and 2007 for his nonfiction book projects.[16][17]
He has won several first-place awards in the Nevada Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, including Journalist of Merit (given to journalists with less than five years of experience to encourage them to stay in the business) in 2002[18] and Outstanding Journalist (a top individual award) in 2006.[19]
He is a 2011 recipient of the annual Silver Pen Award by the Friends of the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries. The Silver Pen Award was established as part of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 1996 to recognize writers who are in mid-career, but have already shown substantial achievement. It is seen as a way of both honoring this talent and also encouraging other writers, both emerging and in mid-career. As Nevada writers, it is hoped that through outstanding work they would one day be inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. [20]
Books
- Beneath the Neon (Huntington Press, 2007)
- My Week at the Blue Angel (Huntington Press, 2010)
External links
- Official Web site for Matthew O'Brien
- Featured panelist, Vegas Valley Book Festival
- NPR feature story, "Sucked Into The Tunnels Beneath Las Vegas," by Adam Burke, December 4, 2008
- 8NewsNow, "I-Team: 'Beneath the Neon' -- Underground Las Vegas"
- Rebel Yell, "Third annual Shanty Town headlines Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week," Nov. 22, 2010
- Las Vegas Weekly, "Local author Matthew O’Brien on Hunter S. Thompson, Larry’s Villa and more," November 19, 2010
- CasinoOnline.co.uk, Book review, Matthew O'Brien - Beaneath the Neon
- Las Vegas CityLife, "Fair and balanced: Matthew O'Brien's new book of compelling essays offers no judgment on its often troubled subjects," by Tod Goldberg, November 5, 2010
References
- ^ Las Vegas Review-Journal, "Weber receives death sentence," Feb. 28, 2003
- ^ Tucson Weekly, "Las Vegas CityLife Writer's Book Reveals Secret World Beneath the City," May 7, 2007
- ^ "Reviews: Screen, Music, Print, and Games," May 22, 2007
- ^ Las Vegas Advisor, "Today's News," October 31, 2009
- ^ BBC, "The secret world beneath Sin City," October 3, 2009
- ^ ABC News, "Under Las Vegas: Tunnels Stretch for Miles," Sept. 23, 2009
- ^ CBS News, "Las Vegas Tunnels a Refuge for Homeless," Jan. 4, 2010
- ^ NPR, "Sucked Into The Tunnels Beneath Las Vegas," Dec. 4, 2008
- ^ The Associated Press (reprinted on SIGN ON San Diego), "Tunnels beneath Las Vegas a refuge for homeless people," Jan. 4, 2010
- ^ CNN, "Under Vegas glitz, a dark life in tunnels," October 24, 2009
- ^ Las Vegas Weekly, "The Battle for East Fremont," May 13, 2004
- ^ The Sun (United Kingdom), "Lost Vegas," Sept. 24, 2009
- ^ Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Decatur native helps underground homeless population in Las Vegas," January 8, 2011
- ^ CBS News, "Homeless People Live in Tunnels Under Las Vegas," August 10, 2010
- ^ "Living Underground," American Public Media, "Living Underground," April 14, 2011
- ^ NevadaCulture.org, "Awards Honor Nevada Artists," Sept. 30, 2010
- ^ Nevada Arts Council, Fellowship Recipients
- ^ Las Vegas Review-Journal, "Nevada Press Association Awards, Sept. 21, 2003
- ^ "Sun garners 15 top awards in 2006 state press contest," Sept. 17, 2006
- ^ [1]
Categories:- Living people
- Writers from Nevada
- People from Atlanta, Georgia
- People from the Las Vegas metropolitan area
- American newspaper journalists
- American journalists
- University of West Georgia alumni
- Writers from Washington, D.C.
- American non-fiction writers
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