Matt Stewart (author)
Matt Stewart (born April 1, 1979) is an American fiction author whose debut novel, The French Revolution, was the first full-length novel to be published entirely on Twitter. Following the Twitter release, the novel was signed to a publishing deal by Soft Skull Press[1] with a release date of Bastille Day, 2010.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and education
Matt Stewart was born in Washington, DC, on April 1, 1979, and grew up in Garrett Park, Maryland. In 2001, he received a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University.[2]
[edit] Career
Following unsuccessful efforts to sell his first novel to traditional publishers, Stewart turned to Twitter as a way to distribute his book to interested readers while generating publicity and media attention. He began tweeting the 480,000 character The French Revolution on Bastille Day 2009[3] and finished the novel on October 21, 2009. The process, lasting just over four months and approximately 3,700 tweets,[4] attracted 1,000 followers on Twitter. Stewart was called a "pioneer" by CNN.com[5] and received worldwide media coverage for his Twitter experiment.[6]
The French Revolution was released in traditional book form on Bastille Day 2010.[7] It received a strong critical reception,[8] and was named a Best Book of 2010 by the San Francisco Chronicle[9] and recognized as a Notable Debut by Poets & Writers.[10]
Stewart is currently working on his second novel, Duct Tape, about a homeless man in search of his imaginary son. He also is a contributor to The Huffington Post,[11] regularly publishes short stories, and speaks at literary and digital publishing events, including Litquake[12] and the San Francisco Writers Conference. Stewart also works as Head of Marketing for the non-profit organization Alliance for Climate Education.[13]
[edit] Published works
- The French Revolution (Soft Skull Press, 2010)
[edit] References
- ^ "Lunch Weekly for Monday, September 21". Publishers Marketplace. 2009-09-21. http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/archives/005765.php. "...written in a loose parallel of the French Revolution, to Denise Oswald at Soft Skull, by Lisa Grubka at Foundry Literary + Media (NA)."
- ^ http://www.linkedin.com/in/mjfstewart
- ^ Richtel, Matt (2009-07-14). "On Bastille Day, Let Them Read Tweets". Bits (New York Times). http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/on-bastille-day-let-them-read-tweets/.
- ^ Kehe, Marjorie (2009-07-15). "Strange times for authors". Chapter and Verse. Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2009/0715/strange-times-for-authors.
- ^ "CNN.com Video". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/07/22/dcl.stewart.twitter.novel.cnn?iref=videosearch. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ^ http://www.matt-stewart.com/2010/01/screens-paper.html
- ^ Stewart, Matt (May 25, 2011). "Go Big on Bastille Day". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-stewart/go-big-on-bastille-day_b_645428.html.
- ^ http://matt-stewart.com
- ^ "Best of 2010 - Books by Bay Area authors". The San Francisco Chronicle. June 27, 2011. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2010%2F12%2F18%2FRVOB1GOBI8.DTL.[dead link]
- ^ http://poetsandwriters.coverleaf.com/poetsandwriters/20100708?pg=44#pg44
- ^ Stewart, Matt. "Matt Stewart". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-stewart.
- ^ http://www.litquake.org/stewart-matt/
- ^ http://www.acespace.org/about-ace/northern-california#stewie
[edit] External links
- Official website
- @thefrenchrev.
- The French Revolution - Official site of the Twitter release of Stewart's debut novel
