Joseph Matthews was born in Boston, raised there and in California, and has lived for many years in San Francisco. Formerly a criminal defense lawyer, he is author of the novels Everyone Has Their Reasons and Shades of Resistance, the story collection The Lawyer Who Blew Up His Desk, and the post–September 11 political analysis Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War (with Iain Boal, T.J. Clark, and Michael Watts).