Karen Zarker

As Managing Editor for PopMatters, Karen works with the kind of writers she loves to read; writers with smarts, wit, heart, and style -- and a healthy respect for history. Her generalist nature seeks writers, musicians, filmmakers, and other storytellers who are traveled (including those with the mind of a traveler, if not the means), educated (academia has its merits, but so do degrees from the school of hard knocks), broad-minded (those who know that their world is not the center of THE world), and with a healthy sense of humor. She served as a critical reader and editor for some of her professors in college; she is devotedly a writer's reader and writer's editor. A graduate of Columbia College (Chicago, that is) she is a "post-graduate" reader of almost everything but minds. (True story: she was in 'The Closet' with Ellen DeGeneres: https://popm.at/2WIxp7M)
PopMatters Seeks Book Critics and Essayists

PopMatters Seeks Book Critics and Essayists

PopMatters seeks writers interested in publishing idea- and conversation-generating articles raised by books published by independent, popular, and academic presses alike.

Call for Papers: All Things Reconsidered – FILM Winter 2023-24

Call for Papers: All Things Reconsidered – FILM Winter 2023-24

We are seeking essays for our Winter 2003-24 All Things Reconsidered film series. These essays analyze and contextualize classic movies in history.

Call for Papers: All Things Reconsidered – FILM Autumn 2023
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Call for Papers: All Things Reconsidered – FILM Autumn 2023

We are seeking essays for our Autumn 2023 All Things Reconsidered film series. These essays analyze and contextualize classic movies in history.

PopMatters Seeks Film Critics and Essayists

PopMatters Seeks Film Critics and Essayists

Whether revisiting a film that has been unjustly forgotten or ignored, critically analyzing the catalog of a particular director or performer, or doing a cultural study of a particular theme or formal technique, our feature essays provide writers with the opportunity to showcase their talent to an international, media-savvy audience.

PopMatters Seeks Television Critics and  Essayists

PopMatters Seeks Television Critics and Essayists

We are interested in articles about quality television shows. These TV series challenge prejudices and subvert assumptions, and are as artful in their depiction as the best cinema.

Bill Gibron, the Movie Man

Bill Gibron, the Movie Man

A tribute to our friend and colleague, long-time PopMatters film writer Bill Gibron.

‘Le Corbeau’ at the Film Forum (trailer) (premiere)

‘Le Corbeau’ at the Film Forum (trailer) (premiere)

Why was Henri-Georges Clouzot's film noir Le Corbeau banned by the French film industry?

The Iran-Iraq War Is but One Specter Haunting ‘Moon Brow’

The Iran-Iraq War Is but One Specter Haunting ‘Moon Brow’

The dance of the masculine and feminine is slow and dangerous with ignorance and assumptions in Shariar Mandanipour's tale of a damaged man's ascent to reality.