Matthew Dickman
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Matthew Dickman (born August 20, 1975) is an American
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
. He and his
identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...
brother,
Michael Dickman Michael Dickman is an American poet born August 20, 1975 in Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon. His work has appeared in ''The New Yorker'', ''The American Poetry Review'', ''Field'', ''Tin House'', and ''Narrative Magazine''. Michael Dickman cu ...
, also a poet, were born in
Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
.


Life

The Dickman twins (Matthew is the younger and slightly taller) were raised in the Lents neighborhood of Portland, which declined into a dangerous neighborhood after a highway was built through it in 1975. Their mother, Wendy Dickman, raised them alone; her stepfather was the father of poet
Sharon Olds Sharon Olds (born November 12, 1942) is an American poet. Olds won the first San Francisco Poetry Center Award in 1980, the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
. They have a younger half-sister and an older half-brother and half-sister through their father, Allen Hull. After starting at the elementary school across the street, the boys attended private schools. Matthew Dickman went to
Portland Community College Portland Community College (PCC) is a public community college in Portland, Oregon. It is the largest post-secondary institution in the state and serves residents in the five-county area of Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill, Clackamas, and Colu ...
and then graduated with a B.A. from the
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
in 2001; the brothers then studied creative writing together at the
University of Texas, Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
. The twins had a brief stint as actors, featuring in the 2002
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
film ''Minority Report'' as the precognitive twins. After graduate school Matthew Dickman lived in
Hudson, New York Hudson is a city and the county seat of Columbia County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 5,894. Located on the east side of the Hudson River and 120 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, it was named for the rive ...
, but by 2009 both had returned to Portland, where he worked at
Whole Foods Whole Foods Market IP, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon, is an upscale American multinational supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. A USDA ...
; both brothers supported themselves with food-service jobs since a joint apprenticeship to a
butcher A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesal ...
at age thirteen.


Career

Matthew Dickman has received fellowships from The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, The Vermont Studio Center, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. He is the author of three
chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...
s, ''Amigos'', ''Something about a Black Scarf'' and ''Wish You Were Here'', and three full-length poetry collections. His first book, ''All-American Poem'', was winner of the 2008 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry, published by ''American Poetry Review'' and distributed by
Copper Canyon Press Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, founded in 1972 specializing exclusively in the publication of poetry. It is located in Port Townsend, Washington. Copper Canyon Press publishes new collections of poetry by both popu ...
. He was also the winner of the 2009
Kate Tufts Discovery Award The Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards are a pair of American prizes based at Claremont Graduate University. They are given to poets for their collections of poetry written in the English language, by a citizen or legal resident alien of the U ...
for that book, and the inaugural May Sarton Award from the
American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States of America, United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bow ...
. His second full collection of poetry, ''Mayakovsky's Revolver,'' was published by
W. W. Norton and Company W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton Ant ...
in 2012. He is also the coauthor with his brother, of the 2012 poetry collection ''50 American Plays'', also published by Copper Canyon Press, and the 2016 ''Brother'', a collection of poems on their half-brother's suicide. His third collection, ''Wonderland'', was published in 2018 by Norton. His work has appeared in ''The American Poetry Review'', ''Tin House'', ''Clackamas Literary Review'', ''AGNI Online'', ''The Missouri Review'', and ''The New Yorker''. Dickman works in advertising where he is a freelance senior copy writer and creative director. He has been a Visiting Writer at
Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...
, and is an adjunct fellow at The Attic institute in Portland.


Awards

* 2006
Provincetown Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...
Fine Arts Work Center The Fine Arts Work Center is a non-profit enterprise devoted to encouraging the growth and development of emerging visual artists and writers through residency programs, to the propagation of aesthetic values and experience, and to the restoratio ...
Fellowship * 2008 Oregon Literary Fellowships recipient * 2008 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry. * 2009
Kate Tufts Discovery Award The Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards are a pair of American prizes based at Claremont Graduate University. They are given to poets for their collections of poetry written in the English language, by a citizen or legal resident alien of the U ...
* 2009 Oregon Book Award finalist


Bibliography


Chapbooks

* * * *


Collections

* * * *


References


External links


"Matthew Dickman", ''Bougainvillea''

"Matthew Dickman", ''Fishouse''

"Michael Dickman: “My Autopsy”", ''The Unofficial New Yorker Poetry Supplement''

"The 'Manny'", ''The Story'', American Public Media
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickman, Matthew 1975 births Living people Poets from Oregon 21st-century American poets American male poets Writers from Portland, Oregon 21st-century American male writers Michener Center for Writers alumni University of Oregon alumni