Matthew Dickman

1975 –

Matthew Dickman was born on August 20, 1975 in Portland, Oregon. After studying at the University of Oregon, he earned an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin’s Michener Center.

His first full-length collection, All-American Poem (American Poetry Review, 2008), won the 2008 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry. He is also the author of two chapbooks: Amigos (Q Ave. Press, 2007) and Something About a Black Scarf (Azul Press, 2008). Other full-length collections are Husbandry (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022); Wonderland (W. W. Norton, 2018); and Mayakovsky’s Revolver (W. W. Norton, 2012). 

Dickman’s style, as exemplified in All-American Poem, was noted in the Los Angeles Times:

Dickman crystallizes and celebrates human contact, reminding us...that our best memories, those most worth holding on to, those that might save us, will be memories of love...The background, then, is a downbeat America resolutely of the moment; the style, though, looks back to the singing free verse of Walt Whitman and Frank O’Hara.

His awards include the May Sarton Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Kate Tufts Award from Claremont College, and the 2009 Oregon Book Award. He is the recipient of two fellowships from Literary Arts of Oregon, and has received residencies and fellowships from the Michener Center for Writers, The Vermont Studio Center, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Guggenheim Foundation, and The Lannan Foundation.

He also appeared in the 2002 film Minority Report alongside his twin brother, poet Michael Dickman. Currently, Dickman teaches in the Vermont College of Fine Arts low-residency MFA program and lives in Portland, Oregon.


Select Bibliography

Husbandry (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022)
Wonderland (W. W. Norton, 2018)
Mayakovsky’s Revolver (W. W. Norton, 2012)
All-American Poem (Copper Canyon Press, 2008)