John P. Matthew

John P. Matthew is an Indian English writer, short story writer, poet and blogger.

John P. Matthew (born 1957) was born in Kidangannoor, Kerala, India, into a family of illustrious writers in Malayalam, a language of South India. His great, great, great uncle George Mathan wrote the first book of Malayalam Grammar called Malayazhmayude Vyakaranam, his great uncle Puthencavu Mathan Tharakan was a writer and poet and his uncle K M Tharakan was a writer and critic.

Matthew’s writing centers on the urban ethos in which he was brought up. He was born in the South Indian state of Kerala in the village Kidangannoor, in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala from which he migrated to Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) for an education. His reading of Malayalam literature has distinctly influenced his writing, and his short stories are based on characters drawn from all different linguistic communities of India.

He has written and popularized the pidgin English spoken around Mumbai which is called “Mack English.” His poem “Mack English” published in his poetry blog is based on this hybrid form of English. This dialect of English has been used to portray the Mack-English-speaking community of Mumbai who mainly constitute Goans, Anglo-Indians, and East Indians (a community constituting Marathi-speaking Christians living in Mumbai).

A prolific blogger, he has separate blogs (web logs) dedicated to his short stories, book reviews, and poems. His main blog revolves around his thoughts, musings and everyday happenings in his life.

He was editor of the magazine Ambit published by the Bombay Management Association [http://www.bma-india.com/] . As editor of Ambit he wrote extensively on management and related subjects. It was during this time that his first book “Success through Change,” based upon his reading of behavioral sciences was published.

His short story "Flirting in Short Messages" won a place among the top 28 short stories in a global short story contest organized by publisher Penguin India [http://www.penguinbooksindia.com] and sulekha.com, an online literary website.

Recently, he read his poems at the Kritya International Poetry Festival held in Kerala, India. The festival was organized by Kritya Foundation [http://www.kritya.in] and was attended by poets from around the world.

He lives in New Mumbai with his wife, a teacher, and son.

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