Kim Matics, formerly a university lecturer in New York and Pennsylvania, experienced a dynamic career change decades ago when she became involved in rural development projects in Asia. After extended stints in Cambodia and Thailand, her most recent assignment found her employed by an international organization headquartered in Malaysia.
Known in literary circles as Kim Matics, the author is a writer of fiction with a flair for Asian art history and cultures. Winning a series of competitive scholarships paved the way to teach Fine Arts courses at the university level. After a hiatus from full-time teaching to continue postgraduate research at University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), the Anglophile headed for Thailand armed with a full-year Asian Study Grant. Subsequent affiliations with intergovernmental projects led to prolonged employment in the Far East, South Asia and Southeast Asia (particularly Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore).
Fulfilling a long-standing academic interest in Asia and its diverse cultures, the author prepared a series of five academic monographs: Wat Phra Chetuphon and Its Buddha Images [selected by the Tourism Authority of Thailand as required reading prior to certification for Thai English-speaking tour guides]; Introduction to the Thai Temple; Introduction to the Thai Mural; Cambodian Silver Animals; and Gestures of the Buddha [reprinted four times and short-listed for distribution to foreign dignitaries attending the royally-sponsored cremation of the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand in December 2015]. The wordsmith has also produced scores of peer-reviewed papers for academic journals, as well as popular articles concerning Asian art and culture.
As a writer of fiction, Kim Matics is known, to sometimes disparate audiences, for quite different kinds of literary works (i.e., novels, short stories and poetry).
For instance, during the course of 2014-16, Kim Matics launched The Odyssey Trilogy comprising stand-alone novels whose themes and characters are intricately linked, although the venues differ:
• Behind the Folding Fan [2014] set in Japan;
• Revolving Doors [2015] explores parts of Thailand; and
• Something Else Again [2016] takes place in Paris and southern France.
A stand-alone novel entitled, Going Places, Letting Go [2017], describes life in Sea Cliff on the northern shore of Long Island in the shadow of N...