Addie Mahmassani

Photo Credit: Ethan Gill, University Communications and Marketing, IU Bloomington

Hi!

I am writer based in the Bay Area. I hold a PhD in American Studies from Rutgers University, Newark, where I focused on women in popular culture. I am working on my first book, a feminist history of the American folk revival, which will be out with University of Iowa Press in 2026. It involves questions of gender, authenticity, race, and Taylor Swift. Recently I got to speak to the brilliant Code Switch team on NPR about some of this, as well as New Lines Magazine.

I also have a related, far stranger project called FOLK WOMAN in the works. It involves very old songs and erasure poetry.

I write about this stuff for fun on my Substack.

Stay tuned…?

Writing

I cover A&E weekly for Metro Silicon Valley and other Bay Area publications, where I have published interviews with Grammy-winner Molly Tuttle, folk-pop stars The Lumineers, post-punk icon Kristin Hersh, singer-songwriter Wesley Stace, and more— as well as the occasional cover story involving water sports and fish.