Matt Bondurant, aka Dr. Literary Fiction, born in 1971, is an American novelist. Among his works are the books The Third Translation, The Wettest County in the World and The Night Swimmer. Life and career Bondurant was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. His family's ancestral home was in Franklin County, Virginia. He graduated with a B.A. and M.A. in English from James Madison University, where he was a member of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. Matt went on to earn a PhD in English at Florida State University in 2003. Matt Bondurant’s latest novel Oleander City, was released in June of 2022. Oleander is his second novel based on a true story, concerning events surrounding the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, including the tragedy of the St. Mary's Orphanage and a boxing match between a young Jack Johnson, a Galveston native, and "Chrysanthemum Joe" Choynski, who many consider the greatest Jewish boxer of all time. His third book The Night Swimmer was published by Scribner in 2012, and was featured in the New York Times Book Review, Outside Magazine, and The Daily Beast, among others. His second novel The Wettest County in the World (Scribner 2008) is an international bestseller, a New York Times Editor’s Pick, a San Francisco Chronicle Best 50 Books of the Year, and was made into a feature film (Lawless) by director John Hillcoat, starring Shia Labeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman, and Guy Pearce. His first novel The Third Translation (Hyperion 2005) is also an international bestseller, translated into 14 languages worldwide. He has published short stories in such journals as Glimmer Train, The New England Review, and Prairie Schooner, and others. Bondurant is the Creative Director of the Longleaf Writers Conference, held each May in the town of Seaside, Florida. Matt founded the conference in 2013 with the poet and fiction writer Seth Brady Tucker and Florida educator Jonathan D'Avingnon. In 2018 they founded Longleaf Educational Services, a 501-3c non-profit organization which provides creative educational experiences for underserved schools in the Florida panhandle. Bondurant has written feature articles, essays, and reviews for Outside Magazine, Newsweek, and the Huffington Post, among other magazines and newspapers. Specializing in adventure and endurance events, he’s published articles in Texas Monthly magazine about competing in the Texas Water Safari - "The World's Toughest Canoe Race” and in participating in Ned Denison’s English Channel Swim Training