Editor Matt Ryan is the author of Read This Or You're Dead To Me. His stories and poems have appeared in Paper Darts, Opium, Mud Luscious, Word Riot, Trajectory, decomP, and numerous other journals. He is an editor at Best New Writing and the publisher of a micro poetry press, Lowbrow Press. He teaches creative and academic writing at Concordia University St. Paul. Prior to entering academia, he was a criminal defense attorney.
Matt is looking for literary novels with a good story. He likes a strong sense of place and memorable characters. He likes edgy. He likes grit. He likes the absurd. He likes funny. Some of the authors he enjoys are Larry Brown, Donald Ray Pollock, Frank Bill, Alice Walker, Harry Crews, Flannery O'Connor, Robert Gover, Aimee Bender, George Saunders, Christopher Klim, Raymond Carver, and Tim O'Brien. His favorite novel of all time is A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. His favorite short story collection is either Larry Brown's Big Bad Love, Donald Ray Pollock's Knockemstiff, or Aimee Bender's The Girl in the Flammable Skirt. His favorite short stories are "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin and "So Much Water So Close to Home" by Raymond Carver.