Matthew Stadler (born 1959) is an American author who has written six novels and received several awards. Stadler has compiled four anthologies about literature, city life and public life. His essays, which have been published in magazines and museum catalogs, focus on architecture, urban planning and sprawl.
"Sprawl is the disappearance of an idea", Stadler wrote in the annotated reader Where We Live Now. "So how can we go on speaking of the city and the country, yet not remain fixed in the downward spiral of loss?"[1] Stadler's essays and larger projects explore this question by looking for better language and new descriptions. While there is significant overlap, Stadler's work can usefully be broken down into three areas: novels; sprawl and urbanism; publishing and public space.