Matthew Clayfield is a journalist, critic, and screenwriter. He finished his first novel, A Death in Phnom Penh, in 2018.

He has worked as a freelance foreign correspondent in more than twenty countries, specialising in first-person narrative journalism, political commentary, and travel writing. His journalism has appeared in The Australian, The Daily Beast, Politico, The Guardian, The Monthly, and more. He was a staff reporter with The Australian between 2008 and 2010 and a reporter at ABC Radio Current Affairs between 2016 and 2017. He was a shortlisted finalist for Young Journalist of the Year in the 2009 News Limited News Awards.

Matthew’s critical work covers books, cinema, the performing arts, visual arts, and restaurants, and has appeared in The Australian, The Economist The Lifted Brow, Time Out, Senses of Cinema, and on his personal blog, Esoteric Rabbit, which ran from 2002 to 2009.