Thea Matthews
Biography
Thea Matthews is a poet and an author of mixed African, Indigenous Mexican, Sephardi ancestry. Originally from San Francisco, California, she holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing–Poetry from New York University and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Matthews’s work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Republic, ZYZZYVA, Alta Journal, Colorado Review, The Common, The Massachusetts Review, Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, and Kweli Journal, among other publications.
Her first book of poems, Unearth [The Flowers], was published by Red Light Lit Press and was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Poetry Books of 2020. She graduated from NYU in 2022, and in the fall and winter of 2023, she served as a poet-in-residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. Her second poetry collection, GRIME, was published as the 25th release in the City Lights Books Spotlight Series September 2025 and won the 2026 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award.
Her work establishes her interest in dramatic monologue, witness, survival, violence, history, and the emotional interiority of people living within systems of social and political consequence. Her work has received strong critical recognition from established poets and writers, including Patricia Smith, Robin Coste Lewis, James Cagney, Matthew Rohrer, Jericho Brown, Maw Shein Win, Tiana Clark, and Tongo Eisen-Martin.
In addition to her literary work, Matthews has an editorial background and teaches creative writing at Columbia University, City University of New York (CUNY) and its partnerships, as well as through literary organizations. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
Grounded in witness, repair, resilience, and survival, my poetry dwells along the roads of teshuvah and tikkun olam, probing into morality and resisting the erasure of human suffering while upholding Jewish traditions of testimony and remembrance.
Published Works
Books of Poetry
GRIME (City Lights Books, 2025), winner of the 2026 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award
Unearth [The Flowers] (Red Light Lit Press, 2020)
Anthologies
Ends & Endings: New Elegiac Poetry (Gasher Press, 2025)
Poetry is Bread: The Anthology (Nirala Publications, 2025), edited by Tina Cane
We Are Antifa: Expressions Against Fascism, Racism and Police Violence in the United States and Beyond (Into
the Void, 2020)
Love WITH Accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse (AK Press, 2019)
Links to Sample Works
“Great American Suicide Note” and “On the Ninth Floor.” Kweli. Web. February 27, 2026
“At a Family House Party in San Jose, California.” The Atlantic. Web. August 31, 2025
