“Our country would be far more dangerous than it is now if everyone brought a gun to every argument, as Matt Valentine illustrated at Politico in October.”
– Anna North, New York Times
Background
I was born in Alaska and have lived all over the U.S., but my deepest roots are in Texas. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with majors in Plan II and English, I completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at New York University, then worked as a journalist in Pennsylvania before returning to Austin. I continue to write and publish stories and essays in outlets such as The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Salon, and several literary journals.
"Simply breathtaking... Matt Valentine’s “Zohra” is an acute tale of three American tourists in Morocco (Paul Bowles terrain revisited), and pointedly captures the disorientations of travel, while managing to construct a larger metaphorical architecture."
– Mark Cunningham, New Pages
photo by Jack DuFon
Host of Joynes Lecture Series
2006–2022
Campus Carry
In this volume, editors Patricia Somers and Matt Valentine lead an examination of the unintended consequences of campus gun policy and showcase voices from the college community who are grappling with the questions, issues, and consequences that have emerged at their respective institutions.
Photography
My grandfather taught me how to make prints in a chemical darkroom when I was about five years old, and gave me my first film camera, a Minolta. One of my early part time jobs was working in a photography lab. When I moved to New York to study creative writing, I talked my way into a job as a master printer for the Arts Technology Group at NYU, which lead to me joining the staff in the Department of Photography and Imaging. Around this time I also started photographing poets and writers, a portraiture project I have continued for more than 20 years.