Matthew Sharpe was born on October 17, 1962, in New York City, a city whose layered energies have long drawn writers into its orbit and shaped what American prose can do. A citizen of the United States, he works in English and has pursued fiction across more than one form, writing both novels and short stories.

His education moved between two institutions of different character: Oberlin College and Columbia University. That movement between a liberal arts setting and a research university framed his development as both a novelist and a short story writer, and he has also worked as a university teacher, occupying the dual position of practitioner and instructor that defines many American literary careers. His writing, across the novel and the shorter form, draws on the full range of what narrative prose allows.

The Library of Congress records him as "Sharpe, Matthew, 1962-," a designation that remains open. What the available record establishes is that Matthew Sharpe is a writer, a novelist, a short story writer, and a university teacher — roles that together account for a career conducted in English and rooted in an education shaped by two distinct American institutions.