Matthew Strange

Matthew Strange grew up in a family of six in a small town in northern New Jersey. He always loved writing but began to take it more seriously after his sister found a notebook of his poetry during his freshman year of high school. She was impressed and encouraged him to keep writing. Matthew headed south for college, attending a small liberal arts school in Virginia where he excelled in short story writing and won the Libbie Keeton LaPrade Creative Writing Award in 2004. After college Matthew couldn't help but stay in Virginia, moving to Richmond's Fan District to begin the next stage of his life. Initially, Matthew fell back on his experience working with children and found employment as a portrait photographer, a private tutor, and a daycare teacher. But all the while he was writing, and eventually he switched career paths to put his natural talent with words to work for him. Now, Matthew works full time as a marketing copywriter, but has also authored four books in the series Daily Life In America In The 1800s, and continues to freelance and work on his novels, short stories, and poetry.