Matthew Dicks is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Twenty-one Truths About Love, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Something Missing, Unexpectedly, Milo, The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs, Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling and the upcoming The Other Mother and Cardboard Knight. His novels have been translated into more than 25 languages worldwide.
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend was the 2014 Dolly Gray Award winner and was a finalist for the 2017 Nutmeg Award in Connecticut.
He is also the author of the rock opera The Clowns and the musicals Caught in the Middle, Sticks & Stones, and Summertime. He has written comic books for Double Take comics. He is the humor columnist for Seasons magazine and a columnist for Slate magazine. He has also published for Reader's Digest, The Hartford Courant, Parents magazine, The Huffington Post, and The Christian Science Monitor.
The Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists awarded him first prize in opinion/humor writing in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019.
When not hunched over a computer screen, Matthew fills his days as an elementary school teacher, a storyteller, a speaking coach, a blogger, a wedding DJ, a minister, a life coach, and a Lord of Sealand. He has been teaching for 21 years and is a former West Hartford Teacher of the Year and a finalist for Connecticut Teacher of the Year.
Matthew is a 46-time Moth StorySLAM champion and 6-time GrandSLAM champion whose stories have been featured on their nationally syndicated Moth Radio Hour and their weekly podcast. He has also been featured on PBS’s Stories From the Stage.
He’s also told stories for This American Life, The Story Collider, The Liar Show, Literary Death Match, The Mouth, and many others. He has performed in such venues as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Wilbur Theater, The Academy of Music in North Hampton, CT, The Bynam Theater of Pittsburgh, The Bell House in NYC, The Lebanon Opera House, The Cutler Majestic, Boston University, Yale University, and Infinity Hall in Hartford, CT.
He has spoken at TEDx conferences at Boston University, Western Connecticut State University, Kripalu Center of Yoga and Health, as well as venues in Somerville and Natick, MA, and Madison, CT.
Matthew is also the co-founder and creative director of Speak Up, a Hartford-based storytelling organization that produces shows throughout New England. He teaches storytelling and public speaking to individuals, corporations, universities, religious institutions, and school districts around the world, including Yale University, MIT, The University of Connecticut Law School, Purdue University, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Miss Porter's School, and Graded School in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Matthew is the creator, producer, and co-host of Speak Up Storytelling, a podcast that teaches people to tell their best stories. He is also the creator and co-host of Boy vs. Girl, a podcast about gender and gender stereotypes.
Matthew is married to friend and fellow teacher, Elysha, and they have two children, Clara and Charlie. He grew up in the small town of Blackstone, Massachusetts, where he made a name for himself by dying twice before the age of eighteen and becoming the first student in his high school to be suspended for inciting riot upon himself.
Publicity:
Hartford magazine: These Greater Hartford Players Capture Life Through Storytelling
Hartford magazine: The Art Of Storytelling Thrives And Endures In Connecticut
Newsweek: Have We Got a Story For You: 18 Years of Storytelling at The Moth
Innovation Hartford: Author, Educator, and Entrepreneur Co-founds Speak Up
The Atlantic: The Student I Couldn't Stand
Fatherly: How to Tell the Best Bedtime Stories
Hartford Courant: My Forever Friend
Hartford Courant: Newington Fifth Grade Teacher Publishes Novel About Bullying
Hartford Courant: West Hartford Teacher Matthew Dicks Finds Success With "Something Missing"
