More about Matthew

Writing & Awards

Matthew’s debut novel, A Voice Beyond Reason, is the story of a young Spaniard's awakening to his intuition. The 2019 BookLife Prize called A Voice Beyond Reason, “(a) highly crafted gem.” An excerpt deemed particularly evocative of a sense of place was selected for the Creative Process Exhibition, launched at the Sorbonne and traveling to forty leading universities around the world.

Matthew's travel-story collection, With Open Arms, recounts his humorous and harrowing experiences on two trips to Morocco. The collection has topped the Amazon Africa category, as well as the Morocco one four times. Its stories were awarded four Solas Awards and Third Prize for Humor in the 2020 Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition.

Matthew’s latest book, Porcelain Travels, recounts his experiences in and around bathrooms encountered on his travels. Publishers Weekly noted that “Felix returns with an offbeat…funny collection." Porcelain Travels won Gold for Humor in the 2019 Readers’ Favorite Awards and was a Foreword INDIES Humor Book of the Year Award finalist. A number one bestseller in four Amazon categories, including Travel Humor and Literary Travel, the collection received further recognition in the 2019 Solas Awards, where its stories received Gold, Silver, and Bronze honors, as well as in the 2020 Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, in which one of its stories was awarded First Prize for Humor.

Matthew is currently seeking representation for his forthcoming book, a work of narrative nonfiction about how opening to his inner voice has helped unlock deeper truths leading to a life worth living. Excerpts have been recognized in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition and the Solas Awards, including the $750 Grand Prize for Story of the Year.

Mind, Body, & Spirit

Matthew is a certified Human Potential Life Coach, through the Human Potential Academy in London, England. He has an accredited certification in Intuitive Medicine from the Academy of Intuitive Medicine in Sausalito, California.

Matthew was honored to be chosen as a participant in Esalen’s Live Extended Education Program, where he studied breath work with Ellen Watson. He has explored dream work with Robert Moss in the United States and France, and he was both interviewee and interviewer in The Intuition Chronicles online series, hosted by former Christian Science Monitor news anchor and producer Lisa Taylor. Matthew has studied meditation at the San Francisco Zen Center and attended retreats at Spirit Rock, and he has a longstanding daily meditation, affirmation, and gratitude practice, in addition to other regular, ever-evolving wellness routines.

Podcasting & Interviewing

In fall 2020, Matthew was named San Francisco Writers Conference Podcast Program Director and Host. He relaunched the podcast in March 2021, with guests including Natalie Baszile, Jasmin Darznik, Joanna Penn, Alia Volz, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Charlie Jane Anders, Kirstin Valdez Quade, K-Ming Chang, and others.

Matthew’s weekly video podcast, Matthew Félix On Air, featured “people who create and people who make a difference.” Matthew has also produced a travel-story podcast, Misadventures in Morocco, and a humor one, Porcelain Travels, both based on his books, as well as A Month with Matthew: In Croatia, featuring travel anecdotes, stories, and ruminations from a month in a small island village in Croatia.

Although in the spring of 2022 he concluded his tenure at the SFWC Podcast to dedicate time to his work in progress, Matthew continues regularly interviewing authors and others online, at bookstores such as Book Passage and Sausalito Books by the Bay, and for institutions such as San Francisco’s Mechanics’ Institute.

Appearances & Speaking

Matthew has appeared as a guest on CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg’s nationally syndicated Eye on Travel radio show, iHeart Radio’s The Travel Guys, and others.

Matthew has been a presenter, speaker, and/or panelist for groups including Litquake, Lit Camp, San Francisco’s Mechanics’ Institute, The San Francisco Writers Conference, the Tri-Valley Writers Conference, the Sonoma Writers Conference, Left Coast Writers, Bay Area Travel Writers, Napa Valley Writers; the Stranger than Fiction, Lit Nights, and Weekday Wanderlust reading series; Redwood Writers, WordSpaceStudios, LitWings (Bay Area and Paris, France), the Illuminations Salon series, Spoken Word Paris, and more. Matthew also performed a one-man show based on his book, Porcelain Travels, as part of San Francisco’s Marsh theater’s Monday Night Marsh.

Matthew is a founding member of Page Street co-working community of writers and a two-time host the Bay Area Book Festival’s green room.

When not working on writing projects or on the road, Matthew is likely to be found exploring the streets of San Francisco or hiking the trails of Northern California.