Matt Jones

Matthew James Jones is our featured speaker for "Layers,” and a living embodiment of the theme: the hooligan professor, the cultured barbarian, the soldier who became a man of peace.

His writing explores fundamental challenges – like the dehumanizing nature of drone warfare – through colloquial vernacular, through humour, so that even grief or sorrow can be celebrated.

A professional spoken-word artist and, somehow, a wise fool, Matt proclaims that every human is just a tower of stories, meticulously built, brick by brick. While a book is constructed iteratively, draft by draft, so is a person.

Matthew is a poet, novelist, storyteller and veteran whose novel Predators, Reapers and Deadlier Creatures is forthcoming from Double Dagger Press in March 2025. Today, Matt writes and teaches in Paris: leadership at the École militaire and creative writing at SciencesPo. He also co-hosts the by-donation WriteTime workshop, and organizes a club for fitness enthusiasts who use trees as barbells. His upcoming events are listed on his website, and you can join here for a free wordgift.