Johnson, Mat(thew) 1970-

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JOHNSON, Mat(thew) 1970-

PERSONAL:

Born 1970, in Philadelphia, PA; married; children: one. Ethnicity: "Black, of biracial heritage." Education: Quaker Earlham College, B.A.; Columbia University, M.F.A..

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, New York. Agent— c/o Author Mail, Bloomsbury Publishing, 175 Fifth Ave., Ste. 300, New York, NY 10010.

CAREER:

Writer. MTV Networks, New York, NY copywriter; column writer, "Utter Matness," for Time Out.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for future leaders.

WRITINGS:

Drop, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2000.

Hunting in Harlem, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mat Johnson is the author of two novels, which both received critical praise. Johnson was born to an African-American mother and an Irish-American father. His parents divorced when he was five years old, and he was raised in a predominantly black neighborhood in Philadelphia. He struggled in school, but eventually got accepted to a state college. He transferred to Quaker Earlham College where he won the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for future leaders. Johnson went on to receive his Masters in Fine Arts in fiction writing from Columbia University. Johnson's first novel, Drop, was written in an apartment in Harlem which he shared with fellow novelist Victor D. LaValle. Drop's protagonist, Chris Jones, mirrors the author in many ways. Both are black, both are native West Philadelphians and both live in similar neighborhoods. Chris feels that he is wasting his talents in West Philadelphia and is looking for something bigger and better. He is hired by David Crombie to work in his newly formed, hip advertising agency. "Chris Jones, the self-loathing hero of Johnson's quixotic but strangely appealing new novel, is a rich and complex African-American whose various adventures and psychoses flutter across the pages," stated Chris Jones in a review for Book. "Johnson's very humorous debut novel is a classic tale of a young man's rise, fall, and redemption," wrote Library Journal's Lee McQueen.

Hunting in Harlem is Johnson's follow-up novel. Gentrification, urban blight, and racism are the key issues in this book. Three ex-cons are hired by a real-estate development firm to help "clean up" Harlem. A reviewer for Kirkus Reviews called Hunting in Harlem a "casual history of Harlem, as Starbucks, developers, and homebuyers encircle the neighborhood, sniffing bargain real estate and threatening to seal Harlem's fate as 'the most romanticized ghetto in the world.'" Vanessa Bush in Booklist observed, "Johnson combines sharp analysis of contemporary race and social issues with finely drawn characters, a fast-paced plot, and wicked humor in this fine novel."

In an interview in the Nubian Chronicles, Johnson had this piece of advice for future writers, "Remember the greatest failure is doing nothing. Don't worry about the industry, worry about your work, you can always be better, you can always take your work a few centimeters higher, so do that."