Matt Bondurant

Matt Bondurant was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. He received his B.A. and M.A. in English from James Madison University, then went on to earn a PhD in English ΠCreative Writing from Florida State University. He is the author of three novels, The Third Translation (Hyperion 2005), The Wettest County in the World (Scribner 2008), and The Night Swimmer (Scribner 2012), as well as numerous published stories, poems, essays, and reviews. His second novel, The Wettest County is currently being made into a film by Director John Hillcoat (The Road) starring Shia Labeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman, and Guy Pearce, to be released in 2012. Matt's short fiction has appeared in journals such as Prairie Schooner, The New England Review, and Glimmer Train, among others, and in 2008 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. MattԳ poetry was recently featured in Ninth Letter, The Notre Dame Review, and other journals, as well as anthologized in Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, the most widely adopted creative writing text in America. His reviews and essays have appeared in journals such as The Southeast Review and The Northern Virginia Review, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Matt has presented scholarly work at The Philological Association of the Carolinas, The Group For Early Modern Cultural Studies, AWP, The National Creative Writing Conference, and The Madison Conference on English Studies, focusing on topics such as Postmodern African Novelists, The Fiction Workshop Model, and Jane Austen. He has been a featured speaker or reader at dozens of literary festivals, workshops, and conferences, and he currently leads the Book Club for the Dallas Opera. A former John Gardner Fellow in Fiction at Bread Loaf, Kingsbury Fellow at Florida State, and Walter E. Dakin Fellow at Sewanee, Matt has recently held residencies at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. He has appeared on various media outlets, including Radio France, NPR, and The Discovery Chanel, and has served as an editor on numerous literary journals.. In the past Matt worked for the Associated Press National Broadcast Office in Washington DC, as an on-air announcer and producer at a local NPR station in Virginia, and as a Steward at the British Museum in London, England. During other periods Matt was a waiter, bartender, office temp, lifeguard, barrista, university English professor, or just unemployed. He currently teaches literature and writing at the University of Texas at Dallas. A longtime competitive swimmer and former collegiate water polo player, Matt enjoys water sports of all kinds, and will jump in any body of water he can find. He is an itinerant runner, triathlete, competitive sailor, and long distance swimmer. Most recently he came in 2nd place in the Beginish Island 4 Mile Race (Ireland), and in the summer of 2011 he will be competing in the "Around the Rock" Alcatraz swim race.