Matthew Dicks

 

"Homework for Life"

 

 "Homework for Life" is a strategy that I originally began using to generate more story topics for the stage, but as I began to use the strategy daily, it changed my life. It made everything about my life so much more vivid and slowed my life down remarkably. It's a strategy I teach to my storytelling classes often, and I've had people tell me that it has replaced therapy and meditation for them. It truly changes lives. Powerful.    

 

About Matthew

 

Matthew Dicks is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Something Missing and Unexpectedly, Milo, and The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs. His novels have been translated into more than 25 languages worldwide. He is also the author of the rock opera The Clowns and the musicals Caught in the Middle and Sticks & Stones. He is the humor columnist for Seasons magazine and has published work in The Hartford Courant, Reader’s Digest, The Huffington Post, and The Christian Science Monitor. He has also written comic books for DoubleTake Comics. 

 

When not hunched over a computer screen, he fills his days as an elementary school teacher, a storyteller, a blogger, a wedding DJ, a minister, a life coach, and a Lord of Sealand. He has been teaching for 17 years and is a former West Hartford Teacher of the Year and a finalist for Connecticut Teacher of the Year.

 

Matthew is a 19-time Moth StorySLAM champion and three-time GrandSLAM champion whose stories have been featured on their nationally syndicated Moth Radio Hour and their weekly podcast. He has also told stories for The American Life, TED, The Colin McEnroe Show, The Story Collider, The Liar Show, Literary Death Match, The Mouth, and many others. He is a regular guest on several Slate podcasts, including The Gist, where he teaching storytelling. 

 

Matthew is also the co-founder and creative director of Speak Up, a Hartford-based storytelling organization that produces shows throughout New England. He also teaches storytelling and public speaking throughout the world to individuals, corporations, school districts, and more. He has most recently taught at Yale, The University of Connecticut Law School, Purdue University, Kripalu, and Graded School in Sao Paulo, Brazil.   

 

Matthew is married to friend and fellow teacher, Elysha, and they have two children, Clara and Charlie. He grew up in the small town of Blackstone, Massachusetts, where he made a name for himself by dying twice before the age of eighteen and becoming the first student in his high school to be suspended for inciting riot upon himself.