Coming May 19, 2026 | Matthew Sam Prendergast
In a democratic socialistic reimagining of 21st-century America, a journalist discovers the tech billionaire he was meant to interview is dead. Wystan Fitzroy, the creator of the social media platform Affinity, has left behind a legacy that influenced the century in ways no one expected.
About
Author | Professor
Chicago resident Matthew Sam Prendergast is the author of Affinity, a work of speculative political satire that reimagines 21st century America. As the novel opens in 2021, the Democratic Socialist Sandra Bernard had retained the White House for another four years. His goal was to write the most fictional work of fiction ever written by asking the question: what if there was a good billionaire?
Prendergast studied philosophy at the University of Illinois, a time in his life which he describes as “desultory and ecstatic.” He lived by the maxim that he would not let his schooling get in the way of his education. His primary focus was ethics.
It wasn’t until he became disillusioned with the Democratic party in 2008 that he turned to leftist political ideology, closely studying the career of the now disgraced Noam Chomsky and the early days of Christopher Hitchens. Dubbing himself a “Universal Ecumenicist,” he concluded that all ideologies have something to teach us, even if its precisely how not to think and behave. He was further radicalized by the ascension of the current claimant to the executive.
In 2022, Prendergast received an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts where he studied under Brian Leung, Cling McCown, Robert Vivian, and Miciah Gault. Affinity was his creative thesis. He focused his critical work on politics and the novel, borrowing the title of his work from Orwell: “All Art is Propaganda.”
Currently, Prendergast teaches writing at a Midwestern university. He continues to publish short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. In introductory composition, he claims to produce “critical thinking stylists suspicious of the status quo who learn to avoid the naked this and other promiscuous pronoun use.” He claims to be the kind of professor Jordan Peterson has warned you about. He also teaches creative writing.
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