 |
| Photo: Nick A. Moreno |
|
 |
|
|
David-Matthew Barnes describes himself as "a playwright, poet, novelist, filmmaker, actor, dancer, cheerleader, choreographer, director, teacher, and former model...for life." He is the author of the forthcoming young adult novel Mesmerized (Bold Strokes Books, 2010) that explores the emotional aftershocks of a hate crime. He wrote and directed the feature film Frozen Stars, which received worldwide distribution. To date, he has written over forty stage plays that have been performed in three languages in eight countries. His literary work has been featured in over one hundred publications including 60 Seconds to Shine, Audition Arsenal, The Best Stage Scenes, The Best Men's Stage Monologues, The Best Women's Stage Monologues, Young Women's Monologues from Contemporary Plays, and more.
In 2008, Mr. Barnes won the World AIDS Day Writing Contest, earning double awards for poetry and playwriting, and the 2008 Slam Boston Award for Best Play. He received national awards in the 2008 Split This Rock Poetry Contest and the 2007 New Works for Young Women playwriting competition. In 2007, he also received the Carrie McCray Literary Award in recognition of his two-woman play Bracelets and Boyfriends. He has received two Elly Awards for Best Original Script from the Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance and additional awards from Writer's Digest and the Florida Freelance Writers Association.
Mr. Barnes graduated magna cum laude from Oglethorpe University with a degree in communications and English. He received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. In 2007, he was nationally selected to study his craft in private workshop with Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman ('night, Mother, The Color Purple, The Secret Garden) at the Southampton Writers Conference in New York.
Mr. Barnes was the 2008 Emerging Writer in Residence at Penn State where he taught in the English program for one year. Today, he lives in Sacramento, California, where he serves as a director for the Lambda Players theatre company, is a member of the Sacramento Sirens Cheer Elite, and teaches college English classes. His current obsessions include Jennifer Weiner novels, iced caramel macchiatos, and the television show Gossip Girl, of which he never misses an episode. |
