Gabriel Mac
NationalityAmerican
Alma materOhio State University
University of New Orleans
Occupation(s)Journalist
Writer
Years active2007-present

Gabriel Mac (formerly known as Mac McClelland) is an American author and journalist. From 2007 to 2012, he was a staff reporter at Mother Jones, eventually in the position of human rights reporter. He has also written for The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and other publications.[1]

Early life and education

Mac was born in Cleveland, Ohio.[2]

In 2002, Mac received a B.A. in English and psychology from Ohio State University. In 2006, he received an MFA from University of New Orleans in nonfiction.[2][3]

Career

From 2007 to 2013, Mac worked at Mother Jones, where he began as an intern, working his way up from fact checker and copy editor until he was published as a writer. From 2010 to 2013, he was a Human Rights reporter, a position that was created for Mac.[2]

Mac has covered both domestic and foreign stories, with international locations including Thailand, Haiti, Australia, Burma, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Bhutan. Mac worked on extensive coverage of 2010's Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[4] He has appeared on MSNBC,[5] PBS,[6][7] NPR,[8] Democracy Now!,[9] the BBC, and Al Jazeera. He has been described variously as trustworthy by Newsweek,[10] "a total bad-ass" by The American Prospect,[11][12] and "a profane young bisexual" by The Wall Street Journal.[13]

In 2010, Mac published For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question: A Story from Burma's Never-Ending War, which was about his experience in Thailand and accounts of the refugee crisis of those fleeing nearby Burma.[1][14] He had initially gone to Thailand in 2006 to teach English and spent six weeks in the country, where he learned more about the Karen refugee crisis.[15][16]

In July 2011, Mac wrote an essay for GOOD about trying to use violent sex to treat his posttraumatic stress disorder, which Mac said was triggered by reporting the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and included first-hand recounting via Twitter of being with a woman traumatized by rape. The writer Roxane Gay, a Haitian-American, was supportive of Mac recounting personal, first-hand experience in Haiti, Louisiana, and other locations Mac lived and worked as a writer.[17] Journalist Marjorie Valbrun wrote in Slate that she found the article problematic from a journalist's perspective,[18] while writer Debra Dickerson, also writing for Slate, felt that the article was brave and fearless.[19]

Jezebel published an "open letter to the editors" of GOOD signed by 36 female journalists and researchers, condemning Mac's lack of understanding of the context of Haiti, saying that he was perpetuating stereotypes.[20] Journalist Elspeth Reeve wrote in defense of Mac's essay in The Atlantic, examining the motivations behind the Jezebel letter.[21] Conor Friedersdorf, another journalist at The Atlantic, disputed the criticism that Mac was operating under a "colonialist mindset", instead seeing the Jezebel letter as unjustifiably scapegoating Mac.[22] In Essence, Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat said that he met the Haitian rape victim that Mac wrote about, and alleged that Mac did not have permission to write about the victim.[23] Journalist Ansel Herz blogged that he felt that Mac had breached journalistic ethics.[24] Journalists Amanda Taub and Jina Moore and others questioned the live-tweeting reportage method as well as the question of consent.[25][26][27] Mac responded via a Ms. interview, discussing the response to his personal essay.[28]

In March 2012, Mother Jones published an article by Mac on working undercover at a warehouse as a picker doing third-party logistics.[29][30]

In 2015, Mac published his second book, Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story, which described his experience with post-traumatic stress disorder.[31][32] The book was a further examination of his personal journey with PTSD, which was initially the subject of the essay he wrote for GOOD magazine in 2011.[33][34][35]

In 2016, Mac traveled to Cuba to document extreme birders for Audubon.[36]

In 2017, Mac wrote a feature for Rolling Stone about exploring the use of hallucinogens to treat depression and PTSD, and the underground network used by practitioners in the United States.[37]

Since 2013, Mac has worked as a freelance journalist.[38]

In 2021, Mac was featured on the cover of New York Magazine, where he discusses his experiences with phalloplasty, a gender-affirming surgery for transgender men.[39]

Personal life

Mac met Nico Ansel in 2010 while reporting on the earthquake in Haiti.[40] In 2019, he mentioned that he had "cis-hetero-married twice, wearing long white dresses," and divorced twice, in reference to relationships prior to his transition.[41]

In a travel essay for the New York Times in October 2018, Mac mentioned in passing that he was "not just queer but also openly trans." The following year, GQ published a more explicit essay, written under his new name (stylized on the title page as "Gabriel Mac McClelland"), discussing his history with sexual abuse and his recent experiences with mental and medical gender transition.[41]

In an article for New York Magazine covering his phalloplasty procedure, Mac states that he identifies as gay and asexual, and has a boyfriend.[39]

Awards

Works and publications

Books
  • McClelland, Mac (2010). For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question a Story from Burma's Never-Ending War. New York: Soft Skull Press. ISBN 978-1-593-76378-7. OCLC 693761834.
  • McClelland, Mac (2015). Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story. New York: Flatiron Books. ISBN 978-1-250-05289-6. OCLC 938241219.

References

  1. 1 2 Hatch, Jeremy (4 August 2010). "The Rumpus Interview with Mac McClelland: Burma, the Karen, and Genocide". The Rumpus.
  2. 1 2 3 Kraft, Nicole (30 June 2011). "Meeting Mac". Kraft of Writing. Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  3. ↑ Woodward, Alex (22 July 2010). "Blackout: Mac McClelland on reporting from the Gulf". Gambit. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  4. ↑ Conan, Neal; McClelland, Mac (14 June 2010). "Op-Ed: Reporters Covering Oil Spill Stymied" (Audio interview, includes transcript). Talk of the Nation. WBUR / NPR.
  5. ↑ Olbermann, Keith; McClelland, Mac (1 July 2010). "Health Crisis in Gulf" (Video). Countdown with Keith Olbermann Countdown with Keith Olbermann. MSNBC.
  6. ↑ Brangham, William; McClelland, Mac (31 July 2010). "Gulf Update: The toll on the Grand Isle" (Video). Need to Know. PBS.
  7. ↑ Lee, Brianna (4 June 2010). "Episode five: The oil spill's effect on wildlife, being carbon neutral in Denmark". PBS. Archived from the original on 9 August 2010.
  8. ↑ McClelland, Mac (14 June 2010). "Op-Ed: Reporters Covering Oil Spill Stymied". Talk of the Nation. NPR.
  9. ↑ Goodman, Amy; McClelland, Mac; Kamat, Anjali; Nienaber, Georgianne (7 July 2010). "Media Clampdown in the Gulf Coast: Government and BP Place More Restrictions on Journalists Covering the Oil Spill" (Video interview, including transcript). Democracy Now!.
  10. ↑ Dailey, Kate (14 June 2010). "DNA Who Can You Trust? Oil Spill Edition". Newsweek. The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012.
  11. ↑ Friedman, Ann (15 December 2009). "What's in a Pen Name?". The American Prospect.
  12. ↑ Friedman, Ann (1 March 2015). "On Being a Badass". The Cut. New York.
  13. ↑ Broughton, Philip Delves (14 May 2010). "The Long Flight From Tyranny". The Wall Street Journal. Closed access icon
  14. ↑ McClelland, Mac (2010). For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question a Story from Burma's Never-Ending War. New York: Soft Skull Press. ISBN 978-1-593-76378-7. OCLC 693761834.
  15. ↑ Whitney, Joel (15 March 2011). "Joel Whitney: Mac McClelland's Burma Refugee Diary". Guernica.
  16. ↑ Busch, Michael K.; McClelland, Mac (6 April 2011). "Burma's Refugees: An Interview with Mac McClelland". Shadowproof.
  17. ↑ Gay, Roxane (5 July 2011). "Still with the Scarlet Letters". The Rumpus.
  18. ↑ Valbrun, Marjorie (30 June 2011). "Mac McClelland: What's Happening in Haiti Is Not About You". Slate.
  19. ↑ Dickerson, Debra (1 July 2011). "Mac McClelland's Essay About Rough Sex Is Fearless, Not Offensive". Slate.
  20. ↑ Coen, Jessica (1 July 2011). "Female Journalists & Researchers Respond To Haiti PTSD Article". Jezebel.
  21. ↑ Reeve, Elspeth (2 July 2011). "Reenacting Rape Is Fine, Just Don't Call Haiti a Hellhole". The Atlantic.
  22. ↑ Friedersdorf, Conor (3 July 2011). "How to Talk About Haiti's Rape Epidemic". The Atlantic.
  23. ↑ Danticat, Edwidge (10 July 2011). "Edwidge Danticat Speaks on Mac McClelland Essay". Essence.
  24. ↑ Herz, Ansel (2011-07-03). "On Journalistic Malpractice, Mac McClelland, and Haiti". MediaHacker.org. Archived from the original on 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  25. ↑ Taub, Amanda (12 July 2011). "In Which I Wade Further into the McClelland Morass, Demonstrating That I Have No Sense of Self-Preservation". WrongingRights.com. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  26. ↑ Moore, Jina (17 July 2010). "Should we tweet rape?". JinaMoore.com.
  27. ↑ Dusenbery, Maya (12 July 2011). "Mac McClelland and ethical story-telling". Feministing. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  28. ↑ Thompson, Christie (5 July 2011). "Mac McClelland Talks to Ms.: PTSD, Haiti and Women Writing About Sex - Ms. Magazine Blog". Ms.
  29. ↑ McClelland, Mac (March 2012). "I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave". Mother Jones.
  30. ↑ Ashbrook, Tom; McClelland, Mac; Spoer, Spencer; Korstad, Robert (28 February 2012). "The Reality Of Online Shopping" (Audio interview). On Point. WBUR-FM.
  31. ↑ McClelland, Mac (2015). Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story. New York: Flatiron Books. ISBN 978-1-250-05289-6. OCLC 938241219.
  32. ↑ Abraham, Laurie (24 February 2015). "Mac McClelland on Life After PTSD". ELLE.
  33. ↑ Tolentino, Jia (4 March 2015). "Secondhand Violence and PTSD: An Interview with Mac McClelland". Jezebel.
  34. ↑ Faleiro, Sonia (20 February 2015). "'Irritable Hearts', by Mac McClelland". The New York Times.
  35. ↑ Scutts, Joanna (2 March 2015). "Mac McClelland's Irritable Hearts: 'It's insane that we can only conceive of PTSD in terms of combat'". The Guardian.
  36. ↑ Gravitz, Lauren (24 January 2017). "Mac McClelland Tails Extreme Birders through Cuba". The Open Notebook.
  37. ↑ McClelland, Mac (9 March 2017). "The Psychedelic Miracle: How some doctors are risking everything to unleash the healing power of MDMA, ayahuasca and other hallucinogens". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  38. ↑ Gordon, Ian (13 February 2015). "Love in the time of PTSD: Mac McClelland's irritable heart". Mother Jones.
  39. 1 2 Mac, Gabriel (2021-12-20). "My Penis, a Love Story". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  40. ↑ McClelland, Mac (13 March 2015). "Love in translation: He spoke French. I spoke English. Google to the rescue". The Washington Post.
  41. 1 2 "The End of Straight: The end for America, and the end for me". GQ. 29 July 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  42. ↑ "Mac McClelland Wins June Sidney for Mother Jones Story About the Impact of the Oil Spill on Fishermen's Wives in the Gulf". Hillman Foundation. 13 July 2010.
  43. ↑ Enochs, Liz (16 October 2010). "2010 Excellence in Journalism Award Winners Announced". SPJ NorCal. Archived from the original (Press release) on 24 October 2010.
  44. ↑ McDonnell, Jane (1 November 2010). "MSNBC.com, NPR, ProPublica and CNN.com Take Top Honors at 2010 Online Journalism Awards" (Press release). Marketwired.
  45. ↑ "Best of 2010 - Books by Bay Area authors". San Francisco Chronicle. 19 December 2010.
  46. ↑ "2011 - Mother Jones - Feature Writing". MPA – the Association of Magazine Media. 2011.
  47. ↑ "Winners: SEJ 10th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment". Society of Environmental Journalists. 1 August 2011.
  48. ↑ Kowalczyk, Patrick; Chang, Jenny (24 August 2011). "Celebrating the Power of Literature to Promote Peace, Dayton Literary Peace Prize Announces 2011 Finalists". Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Press release).
  49. ↑ SJP NorCal (2 October 2012). "Check Out This Year's Excellence In Journalism Award Winners" (Press release). SPJ NorCal.
  50. ↑ "2013 - Mother Jones - Feature Writing". MPA – the Association of Magazine Media. 2013.
  51. ↑ Holt, Sid; Dinozo, Cristina (1 April 2013). "National Magazine Awards 2013 Finalists Announced". American Society of Magazine Editors. Archived from the original (Press release) on 2 April 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  52. ↑ Liz (29 October 2013). "SPJ NorCal Honors 2013 Excellence in Journalism Award Winners" (Press release). SPJ NorCal.
  53. ↑ "2017 - Audubon - Feature Writing". MPA – the Association of Magazine Media. 2017.
  54. ↑ Holt, Sid; Russ, Susan (19 January 2017). "Ellies 2017 Finalists Announced". American Society of Magazine Editors. Archived from the original (Press release) on 18 June 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.

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