Matthew Chabin was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but grew up in Portland Oregon. He was a slow reader as a child, thought to be mildly dyslexic, but his language skills took a turn when he discovered Dungeons & Dragons and started grooving on Grells, Grimlocks, Dybbuks and Bullywugs (no substitute for proper motivation!). The teen years were rocky, made more so by the loss of his mother to cancer, but he managed to graduate high school and stay out of jail and write a few decent stories.
He joined the Navy in the summer of 2001, and was six months into basic training when the World Trade Center was attacked. He served two years on the USS Camden, an oiler/supply ship, was deployed to the Persian Gulf and got his first taste of the wider world. After that he worked as a (frequently disgruntled) journalist for The US Navigator, a Navy Publication.
He studied at Southern Oregon University on the government's dime and was much improved as a student, winning scholarships and awards. He spent some time in The Czech Republic (his writings on Franz Kafka and Vaclav Havel have appeared in Gravel, A Literary Journal and Southern Pacific Review). He then took a volunteer post with Tibet Charity in Northern India, teaching Tibetan refugees, just five minute's walk from The Dalai Lama's temple. It was in India that he felt he gained new eyes and fresh strength, his perennial demons of depression and anxiety departing him.
He now lives in Nagano Prefecture of Japan with his much-loved wife, Marie, and their over-spoiled cat, Futa. He is the author of a memoir, 'Equaling Heaven,' which he is slowly shepherding to publication.
