David Matthew Barnes

David-Matthew Barnes (born September 3, 1970) is an American author, playwright, poet, and screenwriter.

Contents

• Filmography
• Screenplays
• Television
• Novels
• Novellas and Novelettes
• Short stories
• Poetry
• Stage Plays
• One Act Plays
• Stage Play Collections
• Featured Work
• Awards
• References

Barnes is the author of the novels Mesmerized (Bold Strokes Books, 2010), Accidents Never Happen (Bold Strokes Books, 2011), Swimming to Chicago (Bold Strokes Books, 2011), The Jetsetters (Bold Strokes Books, 2012), Ambrosia (Pindelion Publishing, 2012), Wonderland (Bold Strokes Books, 2013), Stronger Than This (Bold Strokes Books, 2014), Fifty Yards and Holding (Bold Strokes Books, 2015), and the novelettes Backfire, Bruised, Delinquent, I Think We're Alone Now, Patience is Waiting, and Riding with James Dean. Two of his young adult novels, Swimming to Chicago and Wonderland, have been recognized by the American Library Association for their diversity.

Barnes is also the author of a collection of short stories titled Boys Like Me (Pindelion Publishing, 2017), two collections of poetry, Souvenir Boys (Pindelion Publishing, 2013) and Love and Detours, and several collections of stage plays, scenes, and monologues, including Monologues That Kick Ass (Pinwheel Plays, 2013).

Barnes is the writer and director of the coming-of-age film Frozen Stars (starring Lana Parrilla of ABC's Once Upon a Time), which received worldwide distribution.

His screenplay Boxcar is currently being produced by Kupenda Films, directed by Coen Haver, and being filmed on location in Europe. Boxcar will premiere in early 2018.

For his dramatic screenplay Made From Scratch, Barnes was named the 2017 Grand Prize Jury Winner at Film Invasion L.A. For his screenplay Boxcar, Barnes received the award for Best Short Screenplay at the 2017 New Renaissance Film Festival in Amsterdam and the award for Best Short Script at the Play Film Festival in Paris. For his screenplay Tagged, Barnes received a 2017 Los Angeles Film Award for Best Screenplay Short and the award for Best Short Screenplay at the 2017 Universe Multicultural Film Festival.

Barnes' screenplays and teleplays have also been official selections and finalists in the Hollywood Screenplay Contest, the New York Short Film and Screenplay Competition, the Los Angeles Television, Script and Film Festival, the StoryMode Independent Short Film Awards, the Queer Hippo International LGBT Film Festival in Houston, the Windy City International Film Festival in Chicago, the Shore Scripts Screenwriting Competition in London, and the Film Makers TV Writing Competition in Los Angeles.

Barnes has written over fifty stage plays that have been performed in three languages in nine countries, including And The Winner Is (Playscripts, Inc.), Are You All Right in There? (Playscripts, Inc.), Better Places to Go (Pinwheel Plays), Bracelets and Boyfriends (JAC Publishing), Clean (JAC Publishing), Don't Mention It (JAC Publishing), False Hopes (JAC Publishing), Frozen Stars (Pinwheel Plays), Johnny Ramirez Really Wants to Kiss Me (Pinwheel Plays), Pensacola (JAC Publishing), Sloe Gin Fizz (JAC Publishing), Somebody's Baby (Pinwheel Plays), Temporary Heroes (Brooklyn Publishers), Threnody (Pinwheel Plays), and Unrequited (Brooklyn Publishers).

Barnes' stage plays have been official selections for the Chicago Director's Festival, the DC Queer Theatre Festival, FronteraFest, the Johannesburg One-Act Drama Festival, the Mid-America Dramatists Lab, the NYC 15-Minute Play Festival, the Rough Writers New Play Festival, Spectrum: LGBT New Play Festival, and the Western Australia Drama Festival. His plays have been performed on stages across the country including the American Globe Theatre, the Boston Center for the Arts, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Hyde Park Theatre, and the Producer's Club in New York City. Internationally his plays have been produced in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

Barnes' literary work has appeared in over one hundred publications including The Best Stage Scenes, The Best Women's Stage Monologues, The Best Men's Stage Monologues, The Comstock Review, Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, The Magnolia Review, Memoryhouse, New Plains Review, Review Americana, The Southeast Review, and 105 Five-Minute Plays for Study and Performance. He has also served as the guest editor of dramatic literature for The Louisville Review and as a judge for the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowships in the category of Young Readers Literature.

Barnes was selected by Kent State University as the national winner of the Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Award. In addition, he has received the Carrie McCray Literary Award, the Slam Boston Award for Best Play, and earned double awards for poetry and playwriting in the World AIDS Day Writing Contest. He has received national awards in the Split This Rock Poetry Contest and the New Works for Young Women playwriting competition. He is the winner of two Elly Awards from the Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance, an award from Writer’s Digest, and an award from the Florida Freelance Writers Association.

Barnes is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, International Thriller Writers, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Barnes graduated magna cum laude from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta with a degree in Communications and English. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. He also attended American River College, The Theatre School at DePaul University, and Columbia College Chicago.

Barnes has been an educator for over a decade, instructing college courses in writing, literature, and the arts. In 2008, he was nationally selected to serve as the Emerging Writer-in-Residence at Pennsylvania State University. From January 2009 until January 2015, he was a faculty member and online instructor at Southern Crescent Technical College in Griffin, Georgia, where he developed the curriculum for a first-ever Theatre Appreciation course, which received statewide approval from the Technical College System of Georgia for instruction in 25 colleges. He also served as the college's cheerleading coach and was the founding faculty advisor of the Performing and Literary Arts Student Association (PALASA). He has been a faculty member of the low-residency MFA in Writing Program at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky since 2012, where he instructs and mentors graduate students in Writing for Children and Young Adults, Playwriting, and Screenwriting.

In January 2015, Barnes was named the new Program Director and Lead Faculty of the Theatre Arts and Dance Department at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado, where he was the recipient of the 2016 Inclusion and Diversity Service Award. In March 2017, Barnes directed the Colorado premiere of The Best of Everything, adapted for the stage by Julie Kramer, from the novel by Rona Jaffe.

He lives in Denver, Colorado with his husband, Edward C. Ortiz.