Matthew Morris is a native of the U.S. Southwest, of largely British and Scandinavian ancestry. He has been greatly influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien, with whom he shares a birthday. Among his favorite languages are Old English, Latin, Erlang, Southern Paiute, Mandarin and Wu Chinese, Prolog, Old Frisian, Saterland Frisian, Scala, Ruby, Python, and KornShell.