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Matt Beam was born in Toronto in 1970. He was a sports fanatic as a young boy, playing everything from baseball to wall ball, ice hockey to road. His favourite writers at the time were Gordon Korman, John Christopher, and Susan Cooper. He seriously disliked (and still dislikes) turnips, bubble gum and the smell of new cars.
After a fun and fruitful childhood and his chock-o-block teen days, or as he likes to call them, "his research years," Matt got serious and studied history at Dalhousie University. After 4 years of heads-down work, Matt decided it was time to have some more fun. Over the next five years, he went to Guatemala, Vancouver, Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand. Down under, he earned a degree in education, and hopped across the ditch to NZ, the land of the Kiwis, sheep and the All-Blacks, where he taught grade 8 for a year, before finally deciding to return home to follow his (almost) lifelong dream of becoming a writer.
Matt
has been writing fiction since the winter of 1999. When he started he had
no idea what he was doing. He's only recently been upgraded to the uncertain
status of having some idea of what he is doing. How boring would life and
writing be if you had it all figured out.
Did
Matt really have a 5-pitch arsenal as a twelve year old pitcher?
Yep. He had a fast ball,
a curve, a knuckle, a knuckle-curve and a change-up. Okay, so all five were
often pummeled out of the park, but, man, were those pitches pretty.
Who
is Matt's favourite hockey player?
Have you ever seen Maple
Leaf captain Mats Sundin's smile after a goal? If so, you have your answer.
If not, watch a Leaf game some night, and you'll understand.
Can
Matt come visit our school at some point in the near future?
Yes, definitely. If you
contact him... he will come. (So long as he can get to you.) Please contact
him at info@mattbeam.com
for further information.
Does
Matt do workshops?
Again, definitely. Matt
has his own workshop program, but can also adapt to the needs of teachers
and students. Matt is pretty into the editing process, which he thinks is
the key to producing a great piece of writing, whether it's a poem, a short
story or a big fat tome. Contact him at
info@mattbeam.com.
If
Matt weren't a writer, what would he be?
A rock star. No, make that an indie pop star. Like Emily Haines, Chris Murphy of Sloan, Sufjan Stevens, or Jason Lytle of Grandaddy. I would love to play gigs for serious fans but under the celebrity radar.
