Matthew O'Brien

Matthew O'Brien writes literary journalism about lives and places commonly hidden from the tourist image of Las Vegas. My Week at the Blue Angel gathers creative nonfiction shaped by his reporting in the city, with photographs by Bill Hughes extending its documentary attention. O'Brien's own project page describes stories set around storm drains, trailer parks, weekly motels, and other overlooked environments, while the University of Nevada, Las Vegas archive identifies him as a journalist and author whose papers document that work. The collection belongs beside Beneath the Neon and Shine a Light, books that grew from sustained contact with people living beneath and beyond the Strip. Its title points to one particular motel, but its scope is broader: portraiture, place writing, and close observation meet throughout the book. Readers approaching My Week at the Blue Angel can therefore expect grounded essays in which Las Vegas appears as a complicated home rather than a glittering backdrop.