{"id":40033,"date":"2016-02-29T09:24:45","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T14:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=40033"},"modified":"2022-09-28T15:05:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T19:05:04","slug":"imagine-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/29\/imagine-dragons\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagine dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wright<\/a>

Wright State senior Matt Garrett shines in the university\u2019s creative writing program, inspired by magic, monsters and wizards from the fantasy genre. (Photo by Will Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n

Magic, monsters, wizards, things that go bump in the night. These are things that fire the imagination and stir the creative juices of Matt Garrett, whose storytelling skills have enabled him to soar at Wright State University.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old senior is carrying a 3.94 GPA and is scheduled to graduate this spring with a bachelor\u2019s degree in English with a focus in creative writing<\/a>. He will begin working on his master\u2019s in literature<\/a> at Wright State in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been interested in writing since I was very small,\u201d said Garrett. \u201cCreative writing was my favorite type of writing. And it\u2019s always been science fiction \u2014 amazing stories, magic, monsters, that type of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garrett\u2019s favorite writer currently is Jim Butcher, a \u201cNew York Times\u201d best-selling author most widely known for his contemporary fantasy book series \u201cThe Dresden Files.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main character Harry Dresden is a wizard,\u201d Garrett said. \u201cThe concept behind it is that things that go bump in the night \u2014 every myth and legend you\u2019ve ever heard about \u2014 are real. But they keep it hidden from the populace at large.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garrett grew up in nearby Xenia. He excelled on the football team at Xenia High School, playing both offensive line and defensive tackle. One of his teammates \u2014 whom he had played with since Pee Wee Football \u2014 was Trent Cole, who went on to play linebacker in the National Football League with the Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts.<\/p>\n

After graduating, Garrett went to Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on a football scholarship. But during the second week of summer practice, his knee collapsed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided that even though I loved football, I didn\u2019t want to be walking with a cane by the time I was 30,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Garrett returned home and for the next 12 years worked as a manager in the restaurant business. He decided to return to college in hopes of becoming a teacher. After starting at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, he transferred to Wright State in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing here to Wright State has been awesome. I\u2019m loving it,\u201d he said. \u201cMy professors are amazing. They have consistently made themselves available and mentored me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of Wright State\u2019s Director\u2019s Lab, Garrett will put on a play in April that he wrote in a playwriting class and was inspired by Lovecraftian horror. Named after author H.P. Lovecraft, the genre is a kind of horror fiction that emphasizes the cosmic horror of the unknown more than gore or other elements of shock.<\/p>\n

Garrett\u2019s 10-minute play, called \u201cThe Tattered King,\u201d is set in the 1920s. It features a mental patient and his psychiatrist, who goes insane trying to figure out why the patient has committed a series of murders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the first play I\u2019ve ever written. It was so tough,\u201d he said. \u201cI normally spend a lot of time writing action sequences and descriptions of characters and area. For the play, it had to be all dialogue that tells the story with very little action. It was difficult, but it was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garrett\u2019s career goal is to get his Ph.D. and teach creative writing, as well as classics like \u201cBeowulf\u201d and \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d at the college level.<\/p>\n

Garrett and his wife live in Xenia. They have two daughters, ages 7 and 8.<\/p>\n

To relax, Garrett reads and meets regularly with friends to take part in role-playing games such as “Dungeons and Dragons.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe role-playing games really allow me to step out of being Matt, being dad, being a student,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really helps me recharge the batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright State senior Matt Garrett shines in the university\u2019s creative writing program, inspired by magic, monsters and wizards from the fantasy genre. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":40037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2037,2060,4863,747,715,4298,2061],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-arts-scene","category-graduate","category-humanities-and-cultural-studies","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-student-profile","category-undergraduate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40033"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40040,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40033\/revisions\/40040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}