the writing of ML Cherry
My name is Matthew Cherry. I live in small-town Oklahoma, where I’m a teacher, advisor, and weekend woodworker. I’ve been writing since childhood, and I earned my M.A. in English with an emphasis in creative writing from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2014.
Major influences include Tolkien, William Gibson, Winston Graham, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Galbraith, Stephen King, and Emily St. John Mandel. I want to take risks with characters, themes, and narratives in fantasy and science fiction. There is a gap between love and fear. I wade out into it and I cast my net as the Corps taught me to throw a grenade: with deliberation, and as hard as I can.
November Artwork:
June: We are officially seeking beta readers for Winter True. Excerpt available here; email matthewcherry925@gmail.com for details.
April: The sequel to Winter True is underway. Here’s the prologue as excerpt.
February: Speculative form experimentation continues with YouTube comment flash fiction: “They left sanctuary at dawn . . . “, inspired by the music of Cryo Crypt.
Experimenting with MS Paint as part of a visual-asset-creation rabbit hole.
2024
Mother’s Day, 2024: Parenthood is the root of my most serious work. Here is “Benaster,” a bit of flash-fiction from my short story project Junk Church. I love you, mom.
May 2024: Winter True, a fantasy novel whose genre I’m calling “Tolkien Woke,” is edited and ready for shopping. Three-chapter excerpt available here.
December 2023: Short story collection Junk Church in progress. Table of contents with links to each story available here.
November 2023: Andor is the best piece of Star Wars media ever made. That is all.
January 2023: Updated writing samples linked below! More to come soon.
September 2022: Many excellent writing contests this season! See you in the lists, chummers.
- Gulf Coast Journal Barthelme Prize for Short Prose
- Fractured Lit flash and micro prizes
- The Smokey, by SmokeLong Quarterly
- The Masters Review Chapbook Open
“He did do such a thing. I told myself again and again the thing he had done. And the repetition, instead of killing my love, killed my horror. It killed my fear.”
– Winston Graham,
Ross Poldark
August 2022: I’ve expanded my portfolio with new work samples. I’ve linked a couple below, and will update the full list soon. Links near the top of the page!
June 2022: Last year and this have been all writing and no shopping or publishing. Two major projects of note are the final pre-shop-around revision pass of the fantasy novel Winter True, excerpt available here, and a short story collection whose roots include Bojack Horseman, Raymond Carver’s “Tell the Women We’re Going,” and my own ruminations on small-town, post-Roe Oklahoma.
February 2022: Traveled with colleagues to Albuquerque for the annual conference of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association. Gave a reading of “Chambered,” the flash fiction piece that placed 2nd in the S&S festival in 2020.
March 2020: I am excited to be part of the Saints And Sinners Literary Festival and the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival!
other work
short stories
- Big House
- This short story, originally an honorable mention in the 2015 AWP Intro Journals Project, has won the 2020 Saints and Sinners Literary Festival short fiction contest and was published by Bold Strokes Books as part of their annual festival anthology.
- Orchid Burning
- Mass Exoticus (originally published on Waterhouse Review)
- Storage (originally published by Crossed Genres)
- Unwound (originally published on The Nautilus Engine)
flash fiction
- Evening in Juniper Springs
- Dove in Flight
- Chambered (2nd runner-up, Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, 2020)
- Notes on Maternity (longlist, CRAFT short fiction contest, 2020)
- Lambs in Peshawar (longlist, CRAFT short fiction contest, 2020)
cherryfiction.blog 