Matt Cain (writer)
Matt Cain (born 27 December 1974) is a British writer and former journalist best known for The Madonna of Bolton and the upcoming The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle.
Matt Cain | |
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![]() Cain in 2015 | |
Born | Bury Greater Manchester, England | 27 December 1974
Occupation | Novelist, journalist and broadcaster, former TV producer |
Nationality | British |
Notable works | The Madonna of Bolton and The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle |
Career
Cain was born in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, and brought up in nearby Bolton. He was educated at state schools and then Cambridge University.[1]
Cain spent ten years making arts and entertainment programmes for ITV, including documentaries about Freddie Mercury, Mamma Mia! and The Da Vinci Code, and profiles of Ian McKellen, Darcey Bussell and Will Young for The South Bank Show.[2]
Between 2010 and 2013, Cain worked in front of the camera as Channel 4 News' first ever Culture Editor,[3] a role in which he attracted acclaim for his coverage of the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Mercury Music Prize and the Turner Prize,[4] as well as interviews with Grayson Perry, the Spice Girls and Pedro Almodóvar.[5]
Cain's first novel, Shot Through the Heart (ISBN 978-1447238294), was published by Pan Macmillan in 2014. The second, Nothing But Trouble, (ISBN 978-1447238300) was published in 2015.
Between 2016 and 2018 Cain worked as Editor-in-Chief of Attitude, a UK magazine for gay men.[6] Whilst in the role he negotiated world-exclusive covers with Sam Smith, Ricky Martin and James Corden, launched and hosted the #AttitudeHeroes podcast,[7] and ran the Attitude Awards, hosted by Tom Daley, with winners including Prince Harry and Kylie Minogue. He also wrote exclusive reports on his personal experience of HIV/AIDS prevention drug PrEP,[8] homophobia in Russia,[9] and life for gay people in China.
As a freelance journalist, Cain has written articles for all the UK's major newspapers and appeared on Sky News, BBC Breakfast and Good Morning Britain. He was a judge for the 2013 Costa Book Awards,[10] and the Polari First Novel Prize 2014[11] and continues to judge the South Bank Sky Arts Awards.[12] He has been nominated for Stonewall's Writer of the Year award [13] and in September 2017 was voted winner of Diversity in Media's Journalist of the Year award.[14]
In October 2017 Cain crowdfunded his third novel The Madonna of Bolton (ISBN 978-1783526185) via Unbound, after receiving over 30 rejections from publishers, reportedly due to its gay protagonist and theme.[15] The title reached its funding target in seven days, becoming Unbound's fastest-crowdfunded novel.[16] Pledges came in from 28 countries and the project was backed by celebrities including David Walliams, Mark Gatiss, Gok Wan, S. J. Watson, Lisa Jewell and Arlene Phillips.[17] The Madonna of Bolton was published by Unbound in July 2018.[18]
Cain is an ambassador for both Manchester Pride and the Albert Kennedy Trust, a national youth LGBT+ homelessness charity.[19] He's also a patron of LGBT History Month.[20]
His next novel, The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle (ISBN 978-1472275059), will be published by Headline Review in May 2021.[21]
He lives in London.
Bibliography
- Shot Through the Heart
- Nothing But Trouble
- The Madonna of Bolton
- The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle
References
- "Matt Cain interview: In bed with TV's fluffiest culture editor". The Independent. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- Brown, Maggie (12 July 2010). "Meet Matthew Cain, Channel 4 News's first culture editor". The Guardian.
- "Matthew Cain – Channel 4 News". Channel 4 News.
- Harper, Leah (31 May 2014). "On my radar: Matt Cain's cultural highlights". The Guardian.
- Matt Cain (27 June 2013). "Showreel of Matt Cain - writer and broadcaster" – via YouTube.
- "Attitude.co.uk - Attitude and Winq magazine editorial teams to merge: Matt Cain appointed editor-in-chief".
- acast. "Attitude Heroes on acast".
- Cain, Matt (22 June 2017). "Sex without fear - my experiment with the HIV-prevention drug PrEP". The Guardian.
- Cain, Matt (3 December 2017). "How homophobia feeds Russia's HIV epidemic". The Guardian.
- Brown, Mark (28 January 2014). "Costa book award won by Nathan Filer for debut novel, The Shock of the Fall". The Guardian.
- "Gallery". polariliterarysalon.co.uk.
- "South Bank Show Awards".
- "Biscuit nominated for Stonewall award! *Bi five*! - Biscuit". thisisbiscuit.co.uk.
- "2017 Winners". DIMA’s Diversity In Media Awards.
- "Novel rejected as 'too gay'".
- "Cains Novel Kickstarted".
- Flood, Alison (6 October 2017). "Novel rejected as 'too gay' receives flood of crowdfunding support". The Guardian.
- "Publication for Cain's crowdfunded novel".
- "Matt Cain on being an ambassador for AKT".
- "Matt Cain on being a patron of LGBT History Month".
- "Matt Cain finds new home with Headline Review".