Matt Runkle

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About

First Name: 
Matt
Last Name: 
Runkle
Location: 
Bay Area

Stats

Favorite Font: 
Optima
Favorite Place to Write: 
my desk
Favorite Place to Read: 
either my bed or public transit
Best time of day to write: 
the morning

Bio/Mission

I'm an Oakland-based artist and writer who is interested in narratives of various textures and shapes. I have a completed novel titled *Twos*, which I'm trying to publish. It concerns an anti-gay marriage crusader who finds her reality unraveling as she encounters competing missionaries, antagonistic neighbors, a runaway child, and her own rebellious daughter on a hot day in a Portland neighborhood. Since I finished the novel, I've been enjoying the liberty of writing really short pieces, which I'm turning into letterpress broadsides. I also publish a zine called *RUNX TALES* and make limited-edition artist’s books out of recycled materials. I've taught workshops in fiction, comics art, visual narrative, sequential collage, and zine making. This February, I performed at the Breaking Ranks exhibition at the Headlands Center for the Arts. I recently published *Solid Silver: The Louie Jean Johnston Story*, a fictional minicomic in collaboration with cartoonist Amanda Verwey. My work is featured in *Gay Genius*, a comics anthology newly released from Sparkplug Comic Books. I never thought this would happen, but recently I've been thinking of writing a blog.

Inspirations

*The Lady Eve*; Robert Walser; Tennessee Williams; ZZ Packer; Christine Schutt; Mary Gaitskill; Staceyann Chin; Donald Barthelme; Nabokov; Jincy Willett; WG Sebald; Samuel R. Delany; Hollywood memoirs; Dawn Powell; Kazuo Ishiguro; Bruno Schulz; Jimmy Chen; *Sisters*; *Days of Heaven*; *Imitation of Life*