Matt McGee

MATT McGEE is originally from Upstate New York and currently resides in the suburbs of Los Angeles. His children's book "Heinrick" received honorable mention from Writer's Digest in 2008, and his short story 'Unseen Among Kings' received a 2015 Pushcart nomination thru Sybaratic Press. He has been the editor & publisher of Falling Star Magazine, a Los Angeles-based literary journal since the Winter of 2000.

In 2018 his stories ' Schneider's Last Stand' and 'A Day in the Life of a Favor-Saver' have appeared in Grey Wolfe's 'Legends' anthology, and his short work 'Auto-99' appears in the Spectrum anthology, compiled by LA poet Don Kingfisher Campbell. His latest work, 'Wildwood Mountain,' a western-romance hybrid, became available in June 2018 thru Melange Books. "Someone asked me what it's about. I think it's one man's take on romance, but with horses and wagons and stuff. The thing I like most about it is that the people in the story seem to genuinely like each other. It's not just hot monkey romance novel sex. It's that too, but with a dash of BFF."

In 2015, he penned the short novel 'Hungry,' a tale of a young pianist starving for his art, and his best friend, a figure skater who is starving literally with a well-hidden eating disorder.

In 2008, McGee finished the collection 'Leaving Rayette,' a series of inter-connected short stories. "It's about people moving faster and faster while feeling less and less, never able to outrun the fact that they're more connected than they want to admit. And like all things with moving parts, the trick to loving someone like that is to just wait until they wear themselves out."

His first poetry collection, 'We Liked You Better When You Was a Whore,' came out in 2006. "Not traditional poetry but storytelling in poetry form." The title a direct response to the bad name poetry had received in recent decades. "For a while all you'd get were these obscure piles of words that the author and editor had dumped on the page and said 'here you go, figure it out.' Literary magazines are starting to come around, though."

In 2000 he founded Falling Star Magazine, a semi-quarterly in the Los Angeles area. "The best job I've never been paid for," McGee said in an online interview. Issues are available at FallingStarMagazine.com and a double edition arrives in July 2018.

His first published short story collection, "Diversions" emerged in 1998. "The product of a lot of work done by someone with very little money. I worked wherever I could, earning a few extra dollars a day so the book I wanted could come together."

In 2016 his short novel "The Christmas App" became available thru Books to Go Now as a Kindle download. "Dickens isn't around anymore and we can only watch 'Christmas Story' so many times. It's a modern supplement to classic stories."

Additional works have appeared in dozens of literary magazines around the world including Kentucky Review, Litro, Broken City and Pirene's Fountain.

In his off time he plays goalie in local hockey leagues and braves the harsh Southern California weather to bring his dog to the dog park.