Matt Rooney was raised in West Newbury, Massachusetts and Austin, Texas. He studied modern languages, economics, and international finance before joining the U.S. Department of State. For thirty years he lived, worked and traveled in Africa, Europe and Latin America. After leaving government service, he continued his work on international economics with the George W. Bush Institute, a think tank in Dallas, Texas.

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Since retiring from public policy, Matt has returned to his roots in literature and creative writing. He has published two short stories and has a third out for consideration by several journals. He recently completed his first novel, Deep in the Heart, a coming of age romance whose male protagonist struggles to make his own way and find true love in the freewheeling atmosphere of sexual, pharmacological, and musical experimentation in Austin, Texas in 1978.

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Matt is a member of two critique groups: Write Now! in Rockville, Maryland and the Gaithersburg Creative Writers in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He is grateful to all the members of those groups for their patience, insight, and candor.

 

Matt is at work on a second novel, a spy thriller set in Central Africa in 1990.