Matt Bell is the author most recently of the novel "Scrapper," a Michigan Notable Book for 2016. His previous novel, "In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods," was a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award and an Indies Choice Adult Debut Book of the Year Honor Recipient, as well as the winner of the Paula Anderson Book Award. He is also the author of two collections of fiction and a non-fiction book about the classic video game "Baldur’s Gate II." His most story collection, "A Tree or a Person or a Wall," was published in fall 2016.

His stories have been published in magazines such as Tin House, American Short Fiction, Conjunctions, Gulf Coast, The American Reader, Ninth Letter, Unstuck, Fairy Tale Review, Guernica, and Hobart, as well as anthologies including Best American Mystery Stories and Best American Fantasy. His poems have appeared in Salt Hill, Spork, Barn Owl Review, Waxwing, Tupelo Quarterly, and Big Lucks, among other venues.

Bell has written book criticism and coverage for The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Believer, PEN America, Rain Taxi, American Book Review, The Quarterly Conversation, and The Brooklyn Rail. He is the former senior editor of Dzanc Books and was the founding editor of The Collagist, an online literary journal.

Bell earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University. He has taught writing at Northern Michigan University and the University of Michigan. He is currently an Associate Professor of Fiction in Arizona State University's creative writing program.