"[Schmader's] protean wit, his willingness to stare without blinking into howlingly painful emotional cyclones, and his unfailingly calibrated ethical compass are three virtues every writer should strive to emulate.”
—The Stranger
The Stranger
Between 1999 and 2015, Schmader served as a writer and editor of the Pulitzer-winning Seattle newsweekly The Stranger, writing the column "Last Days: The Week in Review" and covering everything from the Michael Jackson criminal trial to the post-prison life of the West Memphis Three.
Like Seeing God or Something
An Interview with Lily Tomlin
Among the Faithful
The criminal trial against Michael Jackson has just begun, but for the troubled King of Pop's most passionate fans, Jackson's innocence is more than a foregone conclusion—it's a fact of life.
The American Audience Is Terrible
An Interview with Fran Lebowitz
Suicide Solution
Sims Ellison did more than provide yet another tragically premature rock corpse
His Kampf
Morrissey's Wonderful and Horrible Autobiography
Funny First, Dyke Second
An Interview with Ellen DeGeneres
The Sound of Falling in Love
Intiman Bares Its Musical Heart with the World Premiere of ‘The Light in the Piazza’
Filipino Fabulousness
Inay's Asian Pacific Cuisine Is All That
Goodbye, TrimSpa’s Rose
In Memory of Anna Nicole Smith
Real-World Horror, Film-World Triumph
Megan Griffiths's Brilliant Eden Makes Humane Art Out of Inhumanity
Paradise Found
An Interview with the West Memphis Three's Jason Baldwin
Steamfitter's Daughter
With a New Album on Her New Label, Visqueen's Rachel Flotard Honors the Man Who Made Her
Tabloid
Mormons, Mysteries, and a Beauty-Queen Sociopath
On a Deadline
(How Not to Get Married)
Into the Vegettoir
A Truth-Seeking Vegetarian Dares to Look His Field Roast in the Eye
Bookstore Heaven
After 26 Years, History Catches Up to Bailey/Coy Books
City Arts
In 2016, Schmader began writing essays for the Seattle magazine City Arts.
Songs of Peace
On Making a Mixtape for My Dad's Final Days
Musical Emancipation
Xolie Morra is a Gifted Singer/Songwriter Staking a Claim for Neurodiversity
What the Drugs Taught Me
A five-part collaboration with the award-winning comic artist Ellen Forney, originally published in The Stranger and subsequently published in Forney's comics collection I Love Led Zeppelin.