Matthew McIntosh

Early years

McIntosh is a native of Federal Way, Washington. He graduated from the creative writing program at the University of Washington after years of being enrolled on-and-off, during which time he held numerous menial jobs. He also attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. As a second-year workshop student, he won Playboy magazine's short story contest for university students for his story "Fishboy."

Well

McIntosh’s debut novel was published in 2003, when he was 26 years old. Well is a series of vignettes about the bleak existence of desperate characters living in the Seattle suburb of Federal Way, Washington. The book earned praised for its realistic characters, stark writing style and for being ambitious. It was both praised and criticized for its structure and unrelated storylines.