“My fiction is inspired by the unexplained events I’ve witnessed but seldom shared because no one would believe me.”
Writer and independent filmmaker Stephen Newton lives in Southern Appalachia with his wife, Angela, a painter, and their tuxedo cat, Mama. For the past twenty years, he’s been writing fiction about the unexplained, and producing documentary films that explore the causes and consequences of social injustice.
Newton’s most recent fiction is featured in several literary magazines including, Cagibi, The Write Launch, Litro Magazine USA, On The Run, The Atticus Review, Still: The Journal, and The Lumina Journal, among others. He is currently writing a mystery novel set in the 1970s and a short story collection of his published fiction.
Stephen Newton at home in Southern Appalachia
In 2014, Newton released his first feature length documentary, Outcasts: Surviving the Culture of Rejection, which examines our criminal justice system and reveals why the US incarcerates more of its citizens than any other country in the world. The film was aired during prime time on East Tennessee PBS and screened at festivals nationwide.
His second film, One Night in January: Counting the Cost of Homelessness, premiered in April 2020. The film answers the question, “Why are millions of Americans experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness in the richest country in the world?” The film won a Toronto film festival best writer award for documentaries under 60 minutes, and was selected by the London Film Festival as well as several US festivals.