Matthew Goodman is a New York Times-bestselling author of four books of nonfiction: The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball Team (Ballantine Books, 2019); Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World (Ballantine Books, 2013); The Sun and the Moon: Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York (Basic Books, 2008); and Jewish Food: The World at Table (HarperCollins, 2005).
Matthew’s books have received the New York City Book Award and have been finalists for the National Jewish Book Award and the GoodReads Choice Award; they have been Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers, Indie Next “Great Reads,” and Borders Original Voices selections, and have been translated into eight languages. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The American Scholar, the Harvard Review, Salon, Tablet, the Forward, Bon Appetit, and many other publications.
He has given book talks at venues including the Museum of the City of New York, the Gotham Center for New York History, the Center for Jewish History, the National Yiddish Book Center, the Brooklyn Book Festival, the 92nd Street Y, the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Authors at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, and many bookstores, universities, and libraries. His radio and television appearances include National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, The Diane Rehm Show, On the Media, Only a Game, Back Story, and The Splendid Table; HuffPost Live; the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Woman’s Hour; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s As It Happens; Arte France’s L’Incontournable; and numerous others.
Matthew has taught nonfiction writing at writers’ conferences including the Antioch Writers Workshop, the Cape Cod Writers Conference, and the Chautauqua Institution. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony (twice) and the Corporation of Yaddo.
He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two children.