close to my heart
Breast Cancer Network of Strength
Saints & Sinners Literary Festival
Shambala Preserve & Roar Foundation
Southampton Writers Conference
South Carolina Writers Workshop
Split This Rock Poetry Festival
for fellow artists
National Endowment for the Arts
Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
favorite films
Camille Claudel
Cinema Paradiso
Gas Food Lodging
Girls Town
The Good Girl
Grease
La Misma Luna
Mermaids
Mommie Dearest
Smithereens
Star Struck
Terms of Endearment
Thelma & Louise
Untamed Heart
Wish You Were Here
favorite novels
Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man
by Fannie Flagg
Last Exit to Brooklyn
by Hubert Selby, Jr.
Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself
by Judy Blume
Daughters of Eve
by Lois Duncan
Up in Seth's Room
by Norma Fox Mazer
Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York
by Gail Parent
favorite albums
Belly
Star
Berlin Pleasure Victim
Book of Love Book of Love
Concrete Blonde
Bloodletting
Crystal Lewis Beauty for
Ashes
Cyndi Lauper She's So
Unusual
Divinyls Desperate
Fetchin' Bones Monster
The Go Go's Beauty and the
Beat
Hole Live Through This
Juliette & the Licks Your
Speaking My Language
Lone Justice Lone Justice
Lone Justice Shelter
Maria McKee Maria McKee
Melissa Etheridge Melissa
Etheridge
Northern State Dying in
Stereo
Pat Benatar In the Heat of
the Night
Pat Benatar Seven the Hard
Way
Patsy Cline Heartaches
Possum Dixon Possum Dixon
Rebecca St. James Transform
Sinead O'Connor The Lion
and the Cobra
The Sounds Living in
America
Throwing Muses The Real
Ramona
Tori Amos Little
Earthquakes
Transvision Vamp Pop Art
Voice of the Beehive Let it
Bee
Wendy MaHarry Fountain of
Youth
Yaz Upstairs at Eric's
10,000 Maniacs In My Tribe
David-Matthew Barnes is the author of three forthcoming young adult novels Mesmerized (2010), Swimming to Chicago (2011), and The Marijuana Mermaids (2012). He is also the author of the forthcoming literary novel Accidents Never Happen (2011) and the forthcoming romantic spy thriller Love in the Shadows (2012). He wrote and directed the motion picture Frozen Stars, which received worldwide distribution. To date, he has written over forty stage plays that have been performed in three languages in eight countries.
David-Matthew's literary work has been featured in over one hundred publications including The Best Stage Scenes, The Best Men's Stage Monologues, The Best Women's Stage Monologues, The Comstock Review, Men of Mystery: Homoerotic Tales of Intrigue and Suspense (Lambda Literary Award nominee), Rite of Passage: Tales of Backpacking ‘Round Europe, Small Town Gay: Essays on Family Life Beyond the Big City (Lambda Literary Award nominee), Young Women’s Monologues From Contemporary Plays and more.
In 2008, David-Matthew won the World AIDS Day Writing Contest, earning double awards for poetry and playwriting, and the 2008 Slam Boston Award for Best Play. He received national awards in the 2008 Split This Rock Poetry Contest and the 2007 New Works for Young Women playwriting competition. In 2007, he also received the Carrie McCray Literary Award in recognition of his two-woman play Bracelets and Boyfriends. He has received two Elly Awards for Best Original Script from the Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance and additional awards from Writer’s Digest and the Florida Freelance Writers Association.
David‐Matthew has directed theatrical productions of Eric Laneʹs Dancing On Checkersʹ Grave, John Patrick Shanleyʹs Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Cherie Vogelsteinʹs Date with a Stranger, Michel Tremblayʹs Les Belles‐Soeurs, Robert Harlingʹs Steel Magnolias, Patricia Joudryʹs Teach Me How To Cry and more.
As an actor, he has performed in over twenty‐ five theatrical productions including roles in Once a Catholic at the Julia Morgan Theatre in Berkeley, The Furthest Room at the Stella Adler Theatre in Los Angeles, Big Love at The Merriam Theatre in Philadelphia, in the west coast premiere of Sam Schwartz’s Vito on the Beach, and most recently as Mark in Michael Cristofer's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play The Shadow Box.
David-Matthew graduated magna cum laude from Oglethorpe University with a degree in communications and English. He received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina.
In 2007, David-Matthew was nationally selected to study his craft in private workshop with Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman (‘night, Mother, The Color Purple, The Secret Garden) at the Southampton Writers Conference in New York.
His major writing influences include Judy Blume, Norma Fox Mazer, Lois Duncan, Fannie Flagg, Hubert Selby, Jr., John Patrick Shanley, Dorothy Parker, and Tennessee Williams.
David-Matthew was the 2008 Emerging Writer in Residence at Penn State where he taught in the English program for one year. He served as the Visiting Artist for the 2009-2010 season at the Lambda Players theatre company in Sacramento.
Currently, he is a full-time faculty member at Southern Crescent Technical College in Griffin, Georgia, where he teaches courses in English, speech and theatre.
David-Matthew lives in a suburb of Atlanta with his partner, Edward Ortiz, and their Cairn Terrier, Lucy.
"I am a playwright, poet,
novelist, filmmaker, actor, dancer, cheerleader, choreographer, director, teacher,
and former model...for life."
David-Matthew Barnes
"In the Tennessee Williams flavored
Threnody,
the dialogue sings
with poetic flashes."
The Sacramento News & Review
"Truthfully, my dream job is to write
for The Young and The Restless.
My
life has often paralleled a soap opera,
so I figure why not put my experiences
to dramatic use..."
David-Matthew Barnes
"Frozen
Stars is an ultra sincere
depiction of young people,
passionately performed..."
The Chicago Reader
"I'm nothing more than a satellite,
collecting words and stories
every place I go."
David-Matthew Barnes
"Pensacola
is an eclectic collection
of Southerners in the tradition of
Tennessee Williams written by
up-and-coming phenom David-Matthew Barnes."
The Independent News
"My favorite quote is from Susan
Seidelman's film Smithereens...
I just want to be
in a swimming pool, eating
tacos and signing autographs."
David-Matthew Barnes
"David-Matthew Barnes'
award-winning plays speak
with emotional fervor. His
characters refuse to be ignored,
driving at the heart of the human
condition with their intense desire
and longing."
Word Riot Press
