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Matthew Thomas Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Matthew Thomas
Photo: Beowulf Sheehan

Matthew Thomas

Matthew Thomas Biography

Matthew Thomas was born in the Bronx and grew up in Queens. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he has an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, where he received the Graduate Essay Award. He lives with his wife and twin children in New Jersey. We Are Not Ourselves is his first novel.



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Interview

Matthew Thomas talks about writing his debut novel, We Are Not Ourselves.

Congratulations on publishing your debut, We Are Not Ourselves. What has the experience of having your book published been like? Did you find anything surprising? If so, what?

I'm thrilled to have my book published and grateful that it found a home at Simon & Schuster, with the extraordinary Marysue Rucci as its editor.

What has surprised me is just how many people play a vital role in getting a book into the hands of readers. Once its writer is done with it, a book owes it eventual existence on shelves to a remarkable team effort by untold talented people—editors, copyeditors, jacket designers, production editors, sales reps, book reps, publicists, even publishers themselves—who make crucial, often unsung contributions.

You've said it took you more than a decade to write We Are Not Ourselves. What made you keep writing? Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

I kept going because I didn't want to regret not finishing it. I'd invested a great deal of time, energy, and spirit in it and passed up many other opportunities while working on it. I think of that famous line of Macbeth's: "I am in blood/Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,/Returning were as ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Matthew Thomas at BookBrowse
We Are Not Ourselves jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Matthew Thomas but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Jonathan Franzen

    Jonathan Franzen

    Jonathan Franzen is the author of five novels, including The Corrections, Freedom, and Purity, and five works of nonfiction, most recently Farther Away and The End of the End of the Earth, all published by Farrar, Straus and ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    We Are Not Ourselves

    Try:
    Purity
    by Jonathan Franzen

  • Alice McDermott

    Alice McDermott

    Alice McDermott is the author of nine novels, all published by FSG, including Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Award, and That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This, which were finalists for the Pulitzer ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    We Are Not Ourselves

    Try:
    Someone
    by Alice McDermott

We recommend 6 similar authors

View all 6 Read-Alikes

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