Colin Frizzell interviews acclaimed author and photographer Matt Beams.
Air Date December 6th, 2017.
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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.
Matt Beams has authored: Can You Spell Revolution?, Getting to First Base with Danalda Chase, Earth To Nathan Blue and Last December.
Matt was the photographer for: City Alphabet and City Numbers.