books
the lab
Experiments in Writing Across Genre, co-authored with Alice LaPlante.
Two novelists and experienced writing teachers compile a multigenre guide with exercises that help writers move from initial impulse to final draft.
Many of today’s serious literary writers are moving out of traditional categories of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to experiment with new types of writing that push the boundaries of form and meaning. The goal of this book is to help writers develop an artistic practice that incorporates craft and inspirational techniques from multiple literary genres.
Adopting elements of the scientific method to encourage observation (close reading), experimentation (writing and revising), and replication (using the techniques of others as a model), The Lab teaches writers to access their own creativity and unique voice through ten formal exercises with approximately ninety prompts. Drawing on the work of writers such as William Blake, Louise Erdrich, and Danez Smith, LaPlante and Davison present lessons on plot, character, form, rhythm, and more. This innovative, energizing book is an essential guide for any aspiring writer.
"The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre is the kind of book that reminds us why we write in the first place. It’s not about polishing a perfect draft or following rigid formulas—it’s about wrestling with the things that won’t leave us alone, the obsessions that haunt us, and the truths we’re not sure we can even admit to ourselves. Davison and LaPlante offer writers a way to dig deeper, to investigate form and language as tools for discovery. This is more than a craft book—it’s a companion for anyone willing to sit with the mystery, the unresolved, and find the story waiting there."
Peter Orner Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College, Author of AM I ALONE HERE?: NOTES ON READING TO LIVE AND LIVING TO READ, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. 
"The Lab is the place to be in all stages of the writing process. This guide is crammed with ways to expand and reimagine your practice and project. I have always benefited most from mapping unexpected creative frameworks onto my writing to unlock hidden possibilities, and this books gives you countless, ingenious ways to do just that. Every page delivers an invigorating opportunity.”
Jac Jemcauthor of Empty Theatre and The Grip of It, Guggenheim Fellow, Associate Teaching Professor of Literature, Creative Writing, UC San Diego
"A perfect text for a creative writing class or for those who prefer a structured method to learn on their own. Also ideal for writers like me to keep on their desk for quick inspiration.”
Toi Derricotteauthor of "I": New and Selected Poems, a National Book Awards finalist, co-founder of Cave Canem, professor emerita at the University of Pittsburgh.
"Davison and LaPlante have long embraced the potential and practice of cross-genre writing, which helped launch, grow, and sustain the popular writing workshop known as The Lab. Those experiments, in turn, fill their book with the positive energy and permission to turn writers’ hopes, ideas and aspirations into manifestations. As a longtime writing instructor, I know what makes writers: the act of putting words on the page. That truism and its practice is core to this book. Grab your pencil, pen, paper, or laptop. Then grab this book, embrace it as your guide, and start and keep writing.”
Jerome Joseph GentesPoet, Playwright, Nonfiction Writer, and Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at Institute for American Indian Arts
"The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre is a masterclass in the creative process. I see this book terrifically suited for my Rutgers University creative writing students, as it gives them permission to embrace craft and to find inspiration in the processes used by makers of all art forms. Davison and LaPlante understand that the most compelling work begins best with an obsession, and they provide a framework for transforming raw inspiration into polished writing. Their emphasis on “creative woolgathering,” systematic observation, and the power of surprise equips writers to explore deeply and experiment boldly. This is an essential guide for writers navigating the rich, interdisciplinary possibilities of contemporary storytelling."
Evan Rehillauthor of THE GARDEN OR THE EMPIRE, Rutgers University
"The Lab starts with a strong, clear premise: writers must have something to say and also the means to say it. To reach that vital intersection requires a spirit of experimentation and the ability to communicate. The good news for writers who dive into this book is that all of that is laid out here in practical and inspiring language. Though I’ve been publishing and teaching for years, I regularly find myself in need of new tools. This is the book I’ve been waiting for. It shakes off the tired rules of traditional writing guides and replaces them with something more electrifying: a call to action for writers who want to discover their fiercest, most authentic work.”
K.M. Soehnleinauthor of ARMY OF LOVERS and faculty member, MFA in Writing Program, University of San Francisco
"The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre is a book that considers a writer's entire journey, from conception to revision, but lingers in the most important stop on that journey—at the intersection of curiosity and risk. As a writer who thrives on crossing genre lines, I found its approach to craft both purposeful and playful. The book isn’t interested in tidy rules or easy answers. Instead, it offers tools to investigate form for opportunities, dismantle assumptions, and meditate on process. With its inventive exercises and deep respect for literary experimentation, The Lab urges writers to embrace uncertainty and create something entirely their own.”
Miah Jeffraauthor of AMERICAN GOSPEL, co-founder of FOGLIFTER, and Professor at Santa Clara University
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doubting
thomas
Thomas McGurrin is a fourth-grade teacher and out gay man at a private primary school serving Portland, Oregon’s wealthy progressive elite when he is falsely accused of inappropriately touching a male student. The accusation comes just as Thomas is thrust back into the center of his unusual family by his younger brother’s battle with cancer. Although cleared of the accusation, Thomas is forced to resign from a job he loves during a potentially life-changing family drama.
Davison’s novel explores the discrepancy between the progressive ideals and persistent negative stereotypes among the privileged regarding social status, race, and sexual orientation and the impact of that discrepancy on friendships and family relations.
By turns rueful, humorous, angry, and wise, Doubting Thomas marks the debut of an important writer.
"Sharply probing…Thanks to the care Davison pays to his characters—each one a fully realized, thinking human in Thomas’s orbit—what could be an over serving of tragedy is instead delivered with clarity and nuance. The result is a novel that manages to take on a number of the world’s traumas…using the personal travails of a gay man at the dusk of Obama’s America to probe at the nature of what it truly means to know oneself.”
SF Chronicle
"Doubting Thomas moves compellingly and compassionately among races, genders, sexual identities, and other human conditions. A novel of this depth and vigor, this liveliness, would be notable coming from any writer; the fact that it’s Matthew Clark Davison’s first is a clear indication of marvels yet to come."
Michael CunninghamPulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours
“Doubting Thomas by Matthew Clark Davison is wonderfully insightful and tremendously generous of spirit. A book for our age in that it masterfully navigates the emotional terrain of real people with real affection for each other, who are trying their best to do the right thing by those they love. That they do this across differences of race, sexual orientation, class, and culture is a part of the book, of course, yet this isn’t some intellectual exercise. The book’s characters are terrifically alive and kicking, constantly surprising, dismaying, and delighting us.”
Alice LaPlanteauthor of Turn of Mind
"How do you go on after one rough year, after the end of a relationship, an illness in the family, and a false accusation, which leads to multiple betrayals from the community that once nourished you? Matthew Clark Davison's absorbing, electric Doubting Thomas knows that just when you think the losses are behind you, more are on the way, and yet some losses are entangled with unexpected offerings: a fresh way to see, a chance to be of purpose again, and an invitation to love. A searing, candid debut."
Paul Lisickyauthor of Later: My Life at the Edge of the World
"Doubting Thomas is a phenomenal gift; a complex and careful layering of the inherent intersectionality of personhood, and a testament to the transcendent possibilities of storytelling. Heart-wrenching and mending, Matthew Clark Davison proves in these pages that, in the hands of the right writer, a novel's humanity and craft can amplify one another to matching exaltation. DOUBTING THOMAS reveals Davison as the preeminent among such writers, from whom the rest of us are lucky to learn."
T Kira Maddenauthor of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls
"An electrifying debut. Doubting Thomas is one of those novels where you return to passages again and again to see exactly how the author pulled off an ingenious sleight-of-hand. Matthew Clark Davison is a force to be reckoned with."
Armistead Maupinauthor of Tales of the City
"A wrenching professional crisis becomes the occasion for a man to reckon with everything that made him who he is—the loves of his past, his family, the very job he’s in danger of losing. Is it possible to emerge from such a moment with hope and an open heart? The extremely talented Matthew Clark Davison offers an answer in the form of this very beautiful novel."
Ann Packerauthor of The Dive From Clausen's Pier
"What's so enviable, so thrilling in Doubting Thomas is how deeply realized these characters are... not just Thomas but every character brims with rich detail, nuanced psyche, the beautiful paradoxes of soul and being that make us human."
Patrick Earl Ryanauthor of the 2020 Flannery O'Connor Award-winning collection If We Were Electric
"In all my years of reading, I’ve never quite encountered a book like Doubting Thomas. What is seemingly a book about scandal and betrayal becomes, in Davison’s skilled hands, a prismatic view of one man’s grappling with the complexities of family, community, history, memory, and self. Doubting Thomas is nuanced, layered, detailed, and incredibly touching. In short, this is a fiercely complicated story, beautifully told.”
Zoela Renee Summerfieldauthor of Every Other Weekend
"In Matthew Davison's Doubting Thomas, a gay man is accused of molesting one of his students, and is forced to turn his world inside out. With much grace and a deep understanding of both parenthood and friendship, Davison has meticulously chronicled love – wild and brotherly and even marital – into one man's battle to understand himself. Sex too – a treat for the sensuous."
Terese Svobodaauthor of Great American Desert
“From the shock of the first sentence, through heart-rending twists and shifts, right through to the end, Doubting Thomas is a compulsively readable, brilliantly assured novel. Matthew Clark Davison creates such indelible characters, you'll miss them when you close the book”
Justin Torresauthor of We the Animals
"Matthew Clark Davison’s clear prose highlights Thomas’s external challenges and internal struggles. After his troubling experiences, redemption comes only when Thomas is able to acknowledge and honor his own truths.
In the riveting novel Doubting Thomas, an ex-teacher learns about the dangers of masking who you are to appease others."
Forward Reviews
"Davison weaves memories into moments with an organic flow..,Everything about Doubting Thomas feels natural, from Thomas’ evolving reactions to his eclectic family that surrounds him, to his creeping fear...It’s about rebuilding after loss. Thomas’ new life gets more complex by degrees as he deals with family, friends, and the aftermath of accusation, in a world where no one is a hero or a villain."
The Queer Review
"What happens when a gay male teacher is accused of molesting his male 4th grade student by the boy’s parents? In Matthew Clark Davison’s debut novel...The real story, the real heat of the book is not the sensationalism of the accusation, but its effects on the entirety of the accused’s life, love, and family."
Foglifter Magazine
“Complex, incredibly touching, painful at times, beautiful”
Marieke du PréGoodreads
"With a single lie Thomas has lost a career that was more calling than job. [Davison writes]...lines like 'The day smelled of beer, and cigarettes, and the first bloom of Jasmine;'...beautifully atmospheric setting: 'Her office sparkled. All glass and wood, surrounded by Country Day’s near-choking foliage, wet and green, the drops on the glass and the glass itself created tiny prisms that fractured light from the early morning sun;'..[and] lovingly drawn characters...this book isn’t all about the ills of society. In fact, it’s most about family, and resilience, and love."
Front MatterVCFA
“...Doubting Thomas is an absorbing story of a gay man who finally learns to love...It is also a disturbing picture of the limits of the liberalism so many people pride themselves on having. Davison...has a poet’s gift for striking metaphors.”
New York Journal of Books
“With this important work, Davison achieves something of an anthem for…gay…Gen Xers as Edmund White and Alan Hollinghurst do…for baby boomers, and in that Doubting Thomas feels like it has a place of permanence in LGBTQ+ literature.”
Out In Print
"Some might say Matthew Clark Davison’s novel Doubting Thomas is about what happens to an openly gay teacher after a scandalous accusation. Beyond that, it’s a nuanced exploration of intimacies earned and assumed, neglected and nurtured, made and broken. It’s also about family and community, and how each has the potential to cause harm or aid in recovery."
Lyle Ashton HarrisBOMB
“The prose in Davison’s novel is lucid, sensitive, and gorgeous as he weaves a story of evolving relationships, vacillating self-perception, and deeply entrenched hypocrisy.”
Adam WinogradZYZZYVA
"Davison’s first novel is bristling with...rich description and probing character insight...Doubting Thomas traces how misperceptions — even those based on the vilest assumptions and a complete absence of facts — can shake our understandings of ourselves."
Liz WoodThe Provincetown Independent
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