The New York Times Book Review wrote of Matt Briggs’ first collection of stories, The Remains of River Names, “Briggs has captured the America that neither progressives nor family-value advocates want to think about, where bohemianism has degenerated into dangerous dropping out.” Matt Briggs was raised in the Snoqualmie Valley, about thirty miles east of Seattle. He served in the Army Reserve from 1988 to 1996. His unit, a General Hospital, was activated for Operation Desert Storm/Shield in 1990, and was stationed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from January to April 1991.
He returned to study creative writing at the University of Washington. He graduated with an MA in Fiction from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore in 2000. His short fiction has appeared in The Mississippi Review, Northwest Review, The North Atlantic Review, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. He has published three collection of short fiction including The Remains of River Names, Misplaced Alice, and The Moss Gatherers. A novel, Shoot the Buffalo, was released in the fall of 2005 from Clear Cut Press.
His writing has been awarded several honors including grants from the City of Seattle, A King County Arts Commission Publication Award, and the Nelson Bentley Prize in Fiction. In 2003, The Stranger granted him a Genius Award in Literature. His first novel was a finalist for the 2006 Washington State Book Award and winner of a 2006 American Book Award.
In addition to his work as a writer, Matt Briggs served as an editor for The Raven Chronicles from 1997 - 2003. He produced The Rendezvous Reading Series from 2001 - 2003. Recently Briggs produced The Unassociated Writers Conference and Dance Party in Vancouver at Western Front as an independent counterpoint to the Associated Writer’s Conference. Matt Briggs served as The Writer in Residence at Richard Hugo House from 2003 - 2005 where he has taught writing classes for people effected by chronically illness at Gilda’s Club and the Polyclinic, a zine class to teenagers in Redmond, produced literary events, and offered open hours to the community.
