Living with Criticism

Welcome. I’m Natalie. I’m a writer and journalist. I write about creative people and creative approaches to seemingly intractable problems. Creative enterprise is everywhere — in the art studio, the boardroom, the streets of local communities. I’m always interested in people who are pursuing their work with artistic dedication.

I started my writing career as a dance critic. Seven years later, my focus has broadened. At a time when traditional arts criticism is in professional decline, how do we tell compelling  stories about creative artists? In what format do we deliver content most effectively? I’ve written about queer opera blogs, the canonization of performance art, and a street performer who found financial stability as a wedding officiant, among other things. My work has been published in Chronogram, the Weekly Standard, Narratively, the Daily Voice, and on Blogcritics. I was named an NEA Arts Journalism Institute fellow in 2010 at Columbia, my alma mater. I was also named a 2012-2013 Mellon-Sawyer student fellow at the City University of New York.

I write criticism, essays, interviews, previews, profiles, and feature length work. On this site you will find links to my published work as well as my blog. To read the blog, Living with Criticism, click on ‘Archives’ above.

Tips and stories ideas are always appreciated. Use the contact form above or email me at natalie dot axton at gmail dot com.