Matt Coleman’s first pieces of writing were about his great-grandmother’s homemade beer and his own childhood trips into the backwoods of southern Arkansas to search for Bigfoot. Since then, both his writing and his life haven’t strayed too far from his Arkansan roots. He lives in Texarkana, Arkansas, with his two daughters, four rescued dogs, three rescued cats, and a fish who refuses to die.

 

Matt graduated from Texas A&M University-Texarkana with an M.A. in English. While finishing his degree, he worked with the East Texas Writing Project. After college, he spent five years teaching seventh grade English in a rural East Texas town. He then returned to Texarkana to teach for another four years at the high school where he graduated. His career in education has also included writing and literature instruction on a college level and work in adult learning with teachers of all levels.

 

As a writer, Matt has long been inspired by crime writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Walter Mosley and southern writers like Flannery O’Connor. His writing has appeared in various places, including apt Literary Magazine and Shotgun Honey. He also spent three years as a writer for the comedy podcast, The City Life Supplement. His first novel, Juggling Kittens, will be released in 2016. The novel draws from his experiences as a first year teacher through the fictionalized account of Ellis Mazer and his search for a missing student through the wastelands of a small Arkansas town.