THEA MATTHEWS is a poet of African and Indigenous Mexican descent originally from San Francisco, CA. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University and a BA in sociology from UC Berkeley. Her poetry has appeared in the Obsidian Lit & Arts in the African Diaspora, The Massachusetts Review, Alta Journal, The New Republic, and others. Her first book, Unearth [The Flowers] (Red Light Lit Press), was chosen for Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Poetry of 2020. In 2023, she was poet in residence at the Museum of African Diaspora, and programming curator at UC Berkeley's Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. She teaches creative writing, is an editor, and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Praise for Thea Matthews' GRIME:"Set in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, Matthews's poems on grief and survival explore urban living, including addiction and poverty, through traditional and experimental forms."—Publishers Weekly "Fall Books Preview""Throughout, she excels at conjuring vivid images: 'My head is a gallon/ of bile in a hot air balloon.' The result is a memorable and elegiac ode to family and place."—Publishers Weekly"In Grime, author Thea Matthews uses poetry to create an unflinching coming-of-age portrait of the glamour and the grit of San Francisco's notorious 'Tenderloin district' and the squalor of its poverty and addiction. It's a story of dirt and detritus, but also of survival, triumph and resiliency in the face of overwhelming odds."—Neil Pond, The Entertainment Forecast"Thea Matthews declares that the core of GRIME, her blistering and revelatory take on exactly what makes us human, is 'an experience to face.' That encounter, driven by deftly-craved poems with no wasted movement—is by no means an unexacting one. It's restless, impelling and breaking all the right rules. The personas that drive this collection have overwhelmed silence—the voices here bring both stories that both hurt and heal. There is no turning away."—Patricia Smith, author of Blood Dazzler"These poems are alive. Anthems, war cries, hymns, love songs—poems that rightly and constantly question and blur the lines between beloved and enemy, history and reality: 'A cricket sings on my knee / by playing a violin made of pennies.' This collection is an homage to the mysterious experience of time and change, place and bewilderment. With GRIME, Matthews has given us all a stellar poetic engagement with the world."—Robin Coste Lewis, author of To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness"Thea Matthews is a masterful poet writing with near unmatched ferocity and precision. Her new collection, GRIME, is as sumptuous as a novel. These are brilliantly observed poems, and piercing monologues of witness. Frank, fearless and full of love, it is easy to fall in line with Matthews' gorgeous and spellbinding work."—James Cagney, author of Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive"Thea Matthews does something almost no one is doing any more—she writes dramatic monologues; she inhabits others—murderers, racist cops, sad victims of the same. And she's great at it. And she inhabits herself as if from the outside, writing dispassionate and harrowing reports from addiction, from the ravages of Reaganomics, from the grimy San Francisco streets. But despite the grim grime, these are the poems of someone who made it, and they're not sensational, they're not salacious; they're lyrical and shapely and grime has never sounded so beautiful."—Matthew Rohrer, author of Army of Giants"Indeed, this meticulously crafted collection is a textbook about how to neither gawk at nor look away from the darkness of our culture, but to hold it in a steady gaze with presence, compassion, and inquiry."—Rae Diamond, Barrelhouse

THEA MATTHEWS is a poet of African and Indigenous Mexican descent originally from San Francisco, CA. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University and a BA in sociology from UC Berkeley. Her poetry has appeared in the Obsidian Lit & Arts in the African Diaspora, The Massachusetts Review, Alta Journal, The New Republic, and others. Her first book, Unearth [The Flowers] (Red Light Lit Press), was chosen for Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Poetry of 2020. In 2023, she was poet in residence at the Museum of African Diaspora, and programming curator at UC Berkeley's Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. She teaches creative writing, is an editor, and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Praise for Thea Matthews' GRIME:"Set in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, Matthews's poems on grief and survival explore urban living, including addiction and poverty, through traditional and experimental forms."—Publishers Weekly "Fall Books Preview""Throughout, she excels at conjuring vivid images: 'My head is a gallon/ of bile in a hot air balloon.' The result is a memorable and elegiac ode to family and place."—Publishers Weekly"In Grime, author Thea Matthews uses poetry to create an unflinching coming-of-age portrait of the glamour and the grit of San Francisco's notorious 'Tenderloin district' and the squalor of its poverty and addiction. It's a story of dirt and detritus, but also of survival, triumph and resiliency in the face of overwhelming odds."—Neil Pond, The Entertainment Forecast"Thea Matthews declares that the core of GRIME, her blistering and revelatory take on exactly what makes us human, is 'an experience to face.' That encounter, driven by deftly-craved poems with no wasted movement—is by no means an unexacting one. It's restless, impelling and breaking all the right rules. The personas that drive this collection have overwhelmed silence—the voices here bring both stories that both hurt and heal. There is no turning away."—Patricia Smith, author of Blood Dazzler"These poems are alive. Anthems, war cries, hymns, love songs—poems that rightly and constantly question and blur the lines between beloved and enemy, history and reality: 'A cricket sings on my knee / by playing a violin made of pennies.' This collection is an homage to the mysterious experience of time and change, place and bewilderment. With GRIME, Matthews has given us all a stellar poetic engagement with the world."—Robin Coste Lewis, author of To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness"Thea Matthews is a masterful poet writing with near unmatched ferocity and precision. Her new collection, GRIME, is as sumptuous as a novel. These are brilliantly observed poems, and piercing monologues of witness. Frank, fearless and full of love, it is easy to fall in line with Matthews' gorgeous and spellbinding work."—James Cagney, author of Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive"Thea Matthews does something almost no one is doing any more—she writes dramatic monologues; she inhabits others—murderers, racist cops, sad victims of the same. And she's great at it. And she inhabits herself as if from the outside, writing dispassionate and harrowing reports from addiction, from the ravages of Reaganomics, from the grimy San Francisco streets. But despite the grim grime, these are the poems of someone who made it, and they're not sensational, they're not salacious; they're lyrical and shapely and grime has never sounded so beautiful."—Matthew Rohrer, author of Army of Giants"Indeed, this meticulously crafted collection is a textbook about how to neither gawk at nor look away from the darkness of our culture, but to hold it in a steady gaze with presence, compassion, and inquiry."—Rae Diamond, Barrelhouse

THEA MATTHEWS is a poet of African and Indigenous Mexican descent originally from San Francisco, CA. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University and a BA in sociology from UC Berkeley. Her poetry has appeared in the Obsidian Lit & Arts in the African Diaspora, The Massachusetts Review, Alta Journal, The New Republic, and others. Her first book, Unearth [The Flowers] (Red Light Lit Press), was chosen for Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Poetry of 2020. In 2023, she was poet in residence at the Museum of African Diaspora, and programming curator at UC Berkeley's Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. She teaches creative writing, is an editor, and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Praise for Thea Matthews' GRIME:"Set in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, Matthews's poems on grief and survival explore urban living, including addiction and poverty, through traditional and experimental forms."—Publishers Weekly "Fall Books Preview""Throughout, she excels at conjuring vivid images: 'My head is a gallon/ of bile in a hot air balloon.' The result is a memorable and elegiac ode to family and place."—Publishers Weekly"In Grime, author Thea Matthews uses poetry to create an unflinching coming-of-age portrait of the glamour and the grit of San Francisco's notorious 'Tenderloin district' and the squalor of its poverty and addiction. It's a story of dirt and detritus, but also of survival, triumph and resiliency in the face of overwhelming odds."—Neil Pond, The Entertainment Forecast"Thea Matthews declares that the core of GRIME, her blistering and revelatory take on exactly what makes us human, is 'an experience to face.' That encounter, driven by deftly-craved poems with no wasted movement—is by no means an unexacting one. It's restless, impelling and breaking all the right rules. The personas that drive this collection have overwhelmed silence—the voices here bring both stories that both hurt and heal. There is no turning away."—Patricia Smith, author of Blood Dazzler"These poems are alive. Anthems, war cries, hymns, love songs—poems that rightly and constantly question and blur the lines between beloved and enemy, history and reality: 'A cricket sings on my knee / by playing a violin made of pennies.' This collection is an homage to the mysterious experience of time and change, place and bewilderment. With GRIME, Matthews has given us all a stellar poetic engagement with the world."—Robin Coste Lewis, author of To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness"Thea Matthews is a masterful poet writing with near unmatched ferocity and precision. Her new collection, GRIME, is as sumptuous as a novel. These are brilliantly observed poems, and piercing monologues of witness. Frank, fearless and full of love, it is easy to fall in line with Matthews' gorgeous and spellbinding work."—James Cagney, author of Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive"Thea Matthews does something almost no one is doing any more—she writes dramatic monologues; she inhabits others—murderers, racist cops, sad victims of the same. And she's great at it. And she inhabits herself as if from the outside, writing dispassionate and harrowing reports from addiction, from the ravages of Reaganomics, from the grimy San Francisco streets. But despite the grim grime, these are the poems of someone who made it, and they're not sensational, they're not salacious; they're lyrical and shapely and grime has never sounded so beautiful."—Matthew Rohrer, author of Army of Giants"Indeed, this meticulously crafted collection is a textbook about how to neither gawk at nor look away from the darkness of our culture, but to hold it in a steady gaze with presence, compassion, and inquiry."—Rae Diamond, Barrelhouse