Home » Member Page

Matthew Ellis

Matthew Ellis is a UK-based arts writer specialising in jazz music.

About Me

I am a wide-ranging arts journalist based in the UK. My background is in academia where I completed both bachelor's and master's degrees in Philosophy at Warwick University. There my non-academic writing was limited to producing occasional pieces for the student paper and maintaining a website and blog.

A lifelong jazz aficionado I was delighted, in 2011, to be offered a place on The Write Stuff writing programme. This initiative, the fruit of a collaboration between Jazzwise and Serious, used the London Jazz Festival as the basis for teaching young writers the jazz journalist's trade. This was a chance to write reviews, under the guidance of some of the most distinguished writers in the field, for the festival's blog.

As a result of my participation in The Write Stuff I began to give more time to non-academic writing. Pursuing a career in arts journalism, I am now increasingly writing reviews, interviews and features. Although I am comfortable writing on literature and the visual arts, I retain an especial focus on jazz music.