Books

My second novel, Hero Custodian, will be published by Anxiety Press in April 2026.

“Every sentence of Hero Custodian goes so fucking hard. A brilliant concept made even better by the pure decadence of language piledriven into it, overloaded with incredible nastiness and prurient references that made me unable to stop reading because I kept wanting to see what the next sentence would do. I loved it and found myself laughing my ass off in admiration for Matthew Dexter’s steel balls and ornate style.”

Blake Butler, author of Molly

“This novel is so great on so many levels. The reader hallucinating along with the narrator, the relationship with the daughter, the teacher/student stuff…the violence, the absurdity, the hilarity and super darkness. Endless anatomical grossness and mishaps. DRUGS. I love drugs.”

Paula Bomer, author of The Stalker

“You can almost feel the foot hitting the accelerator in the opening lines of Hero Custodian, Matthew Dexter’s newest novel. And there’s nothing to ‘ease the transition into turbulence.’ The internal monologue jumps and darts and goes in all directions with asides and turn-offs and humorous speculation: ‘My mind is a burning morgue.’ Even Henry Miller’s ghost makes repeated appearances. It’s a gradual apocalypse all the way. At the center is the Custodian: school janitor, haunted widower, party-father doing drugs with his daughter, and unlikely hero during a school shooting. This isn’t writing for the faint of heart. It’s the wild, hypnotic vision-prose of Burroughs, the even wilder psychedelic moontrip-hallucinations of Hunter S. Thompson. Dexter is indeed a legitimate heir to their theater…’easy to enter, arduous to exit.'”

—Douglas Cole, author of The Invisible Hand

My second story collection and debut essay collection, Burger King Ball Pit, will be published this spring 2026 by Cyberwit Press.