Scribner
photo by Heather Young @ heather-young.com
I'm elated to share that my new stand-alone novel, Midnight in the Orchard by the Lake, is forthcoming from HarperCollins/Hanover Square Press in the U.S., and HarperCollins/HQ in the U.K.. (Pub date: January 2025.) It is a multi-layered mystery set in a wondrous and weird lake town in the rural Pacific Northwest (a fictionalized version of Soap Lake, Washington, where I lived for a number of years). This will be Book Two in The Midnight Cycle, a series of thematically-linked mysteries. Book Three is in the works... more to come!
Want to support a good cause? Underground Writing is an efficient and effective nonprofit in Skagit County, Washington that coordinates creative writing mentorships for incarcerated writers, as well as offers writing classes in detention centers, migrant centers, recovery centers, and more. They do good.
How to Stop Breaking Up: An essay I wrote about my wife and I, dating as booksellers, for The New York Times' Modern Love column. Also translated for Vanity Fair, Italy.
Since 2021, I’ve been on the roster for the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau, zooming & traveling around beautiful Washington State, visiting libraries and museums, and speaking about the evolution of the mystery genre, and the growing role of empathy in contemporary crime fiction. Scroll down for upcoming events, and find my list of recommended titles related to the talk here.
Has murder gotten...nicer? I explore the role of empathy in the mystery genre in "How Crime Fiction Evolved in Fourteen Murders," published online by Humanities Washington and in print in SPARK magazine.
Blood on the Prairie: an essay I wrote for The Daily Beast about the origins of the Hammerman and the real crimes that have finally been solved. (Update: In August, 2021, Alex Ewing was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for the murders of the Bennet family.)
"Pixel Beach" A short story about a questing widower, now available in Sou'Wester.
“Peebags for Manboy” A tragic little short story I wrote for The Spokane Spokesman-Review’s annual Summer Stories series. This year’s theme was the 40th Anniversary of the Mt. St. Helens eruption, so the story follows the three stages of the catastrophe: Rumblings, Apocalypse, and Aftermath. Also read for Spokane Public Radio's THE BOOKSHELF program/podcast, and available in an anthology as a fundraiser for Spark Central, an arts nonprofit based in Spokane.
Want to support a good cause? Underground Writing is an efficient and effective nonprofit in Skagit County, Washington that coordinates creative writing mentorships for incarcerated writers, as well as offers writing classes in detention centers, migrant centers, recovery centers, and more. They do good.
How to Stop Breaking Up: An essay I wrote about my wife and I, dating as booksellers, for The New York Times' Modern Love column. Also translated for Vanity Fair, Italy.
Since 2021, I’ve been on the roster for the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau, zooming & traveling around beautiful Washington State, visiting libraries and museums, and speaking about the evolution of the mystery genre, and the growing role of empathy in contemporary crime fiction. Scroll down for upcoming events, and find my list of recommended titles related to the talk here.
Has murder gotten...nicer? I explore the role of empathy in the mystery genre in "How Crime Fiction Evolved in Fourteen Murders," published online by Humanities Washington and in print in SPARK magazine.
Blood on the Prairie: an essay I wrote for The Daily Beast about the origins of the Hammerman and the real crimes that have finally been solved. (Update: In August, 2021, Alex Ewing was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for the murders of the Bennet family.)
"Pixel Beach" A short story about a questing widower, now available in Sou'Wester.
“Peebags for Manboy” A tragic little short story I wrote for The Spokane Spokesman-Review’s annual Summer Stories series. This year’s theme was the 40th Anniversary of the Mt. St. Helens eruption, so the story follows the three stages of the catastrophe: Rumblings, Apocalypse, and Aftermath. Also read for Spokane Public Radio's THE BOOKSHELF program/podcast, and available in an anthology as a fundraiser for Spark Central, an arts nonprofit based in Spokane.
Portuguese language edition of MIDNIGHT..., Brazil, via Grupo Editorial Record. Available 2022.
UK Hardcover: William Heinemann/Penguin
Bio
Matthew Sullivan (he/him) is the author of the novel Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, which was an IndieNext pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, a GoodReads Choice Award finalist, and winner of the Colorado Book Award. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Spokesman-Review, Sou'wester and elsewhere, and his stories have been awarded the Florida Review Editor's Prize and the Robert Olen Butler Fiction Prize. He grew up in a family of eight raucous kids in Aurora, Colorado, and received his B.A. from the University of San Francisco and his M.F.A. from the University of Idaho. After working as a bookseller at Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver and at Brookline Booksmith in Boston, he spent 20 years as a tenured instructor teaching writing, literature and film at a rural HSI community college in the high desert of central Washington State. He is married to a librarian, Libby, and now lives in Anacortes, on Fidalgo Island, in the Northwest corner of Washington. His new stand-alone mystery novel, Midnight in the Orchard by the Lake, is forthcoming from Harper Collins/Hanover Square Press.
South Korea: Namu Bench
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
An IndieBound Indie Next pick and Indie Bookstore Bestseller.
A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick.
Winner of the Colorado Book Award, General Fiction.
Goodreads' Debut Author of the Month and Choice Award for Debut Novel, Final Round
A Library-Reads pick.
Tattered Cover Book Store's Very Impressive Book pick.
SUSPENSE Magazine's Best Books of the Year Award, Debut Novel
Seattle Public Library's Top Ten Novels of the Year
American Library Association's Year's Best Genre Fiction, Mystery, shortlist.
*Book Club Discussion Guide is available here*
An IndieBound Indie Next pick and Indie Bookstore Bestseller.
A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick.
Winner of the Colorado Book Award, General Fiction.
Goodreads' Debut Author of the Month and Choice Award for Debut Novel, Final Round
A Library-Reads pick.
Tattered Cover Book Store's Very Impressive Book pick.
SUSPENSE Magazine's Best Books of the Year Award, Debut Novel
Seattle Public Library's Top Ten Novels of the Year
American Library Association's Year's Best Genre Fiction, Mystery, shortlist.
*Book Club Discussion Guide is available here*
Italian: Longanesi, Milan
Bulgaria, Soft Press
German: Goldmann Verlag/Random House
Penguin/Windmill
Israel: Matar Publishing House
"With Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, Matthew Sullivan has written a smart, twisty crime novel filled with compelling characters set in a world that book-lovers will adore."
- JESS WALTER, author of the New York Times Bestselling Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions
- JESS WALTER, author of the New York Times Bestselling Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions
Events
- 7/26/23: Mystery Writing for Teens: Middle School 2pm, High School 4 pm. Anacortes Public Library, WA
- 8/2/23, 6pm: A Nicer Kind of Murder: The Evolution of the Mystery Genre (live presentation, always free and open to the public, part of the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau), Moore Library, Tacoma, WA
- 9/14/23, 7pm: A Nicer Kind of Murder. Scarecrow Video, Seattle (online).
- 10/11/23, 530 pm. A Nicer Kind of Murder. Spokane Central Library, Downtown Spokane, WA
- 10/12/23, 1 pm. A Nicer Kind of Murder. Moran Prairie Library, Spokane, WA
- 10/12/23, 630 pm. A Nicer Kind of Murder. North Spokane Library, Spokane, WA
- 10/17/23, 1pm A Nicer Kind of Murder. Heron's Key, Gig Harbor, WA
- 10/17/23, 7pm. A Nicer Kind of Murder. Longview Public Library, Longview, WA
- 10/18/23, 6pm. A Nicer Kind of Murder. Three Creeks Community Library, Vancouver, WA
- 10/22/23, 2pm. A Nicer Kind of Murder. Concrete Theater, Concrete, WA.
- 10/26/23 630pm. A Nicer Kind of Murder. Harbor History Museum (online), Gig Harbor, WA.
- 11/4/23, 2pm. A Nicer Kind of Murder. Mt. Vernon City Library, Mt. Vernon, WA.
- 11/25/23, 12-3pm. Small Business Saturday at Watermark Books, Anacortes, WA.
- Nov 2023: Anacortes Senior College, Creative Writing Workshop for Seniors.
- 12/14/23, 2pm. A Nicer Kind of Murder. Timberland Regional Library System (online), Westport, WA.
- 2/7/24, ?pm. Pulp Fiction, Pulp Art, and the Origins of Genre. Presentation, Anacortes Public Library, WA.
- 5/14/24, 10am. A Nicer Kind of Murder. SWERV (Savvy Women Exchanging Relevant Views) (online), Bainbridge Island, WA.
A few other publications:
- Reading Habits: An interview with Humanities Washington, and another with the KREM-2 Book Club.
- Radio Interview with KGNU/Boulder Book Store, and After Hours at the Radio Bookclub.
- Radio Interview on Colorado Public Radio: He Worked at The Tattered Cover. Now His Mystery is Based There. Click to listen.
- Story: Roxane Gay recently selected my short story, "Little Men," for inclusion in The Masters Review anthology, Volume VI.Recommended reading: I wrote a guest piece for "What They're Reading" on BookPage.
- A blog piece for The Page 69 test for the Campaign for the American Reader.
- "Indies to Die For" in THE STRAND MAGAZINE
- a piece about getting a bookstore job in SHELF AWARENESS
- TWO DECADES OF READING BESIDE THE WOMAN I LOVE published in LIT HUB,
- interviews in THE BIG THRILL (with E.M. Powell); in THE QWILLERY; in TRUNK SPACE; and as GOODREADS Debut Author of the Month.
