Matthew Laverty

twitter: @MattLavPoems

Matthew Laverty is a poet and current editor of Blanket Sea Arts and Literary Magazine. He earned a BLA (with dual concentrations in English writing and history) from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell where he studied creative writing under award-winning poet Maggie Dietz and critically acclaimed author Andre Dubus III. His poems are forthcoming in Riggwelter Press, and have appeared at Poetry Quarterly, FORTH Magazine, The Bangor Literary Journal and elsewhere. 

When asked what his poems are about, Laverty replied: “My poems are about what I know best. A moment in time, a sudden realization. Poems are an ideal way of capturing these moments, no matter how mundane or watershed they may be.”

Laverty’s poems are honest, accessible, and often relatable. His works often depict the sublime comfort of everyday life, almost always juxtaposed by a seemingly lurking and growing sense of loneliness. Love and loss is definitely a theme throughout his works.

Laverty’s hobbies include: playing piano and listening to progressive music, video production & editing, playing chess, reading, watching sports, and using Twitter to expand his literary network (where he is very actively retweeting writers with a key focus on also trying to help other poets gain exposure).

Some of his favorite poets are Li-Young Li, George Bilgere, Billy Collins, Jericho Brown, and Gertrude Stein, and some of his favorite fiction writers are Raymond Carver and Cormac McCarthy.

Laverty is currently reading Li Young Li’s new book “The Undressing: Poems” and Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”, as well as a litany of online lit mags and journals (some of his favorites of which include Thrush, The Penn Review, and Rattle).

Laverty’s poems can be found on his site mattlavwrites.tumblr.com in the “Index of Published Works” section. He encourages that you read his poem “Springtime Gravity” (published by Poetry Quarterly) as well as his poem “Abandoned” (published by FORTH Magazine) to get a solid grasp of his aesthetic. His poem “Ancient Herstory” is forthcoming in the 12th issue of Riggwelter Press (slated for August, 2018), and this poem is a personal favorite of his. This poem is also exemplary of his work’s aesthetic, so be sure to be on the lookout for that later this summer.

website: mattlavwrites.tumblr.com