About Matthew Byrne
Matthew Byrne is a digital marketer, poet, and founder based in Hoyland, South Yorkshire. He has over a decade of experience across marketing, content creation, community building, and events, and brings a global perspective shaped by seven years living and working in Beijing.
Career
Matthew studied a BA and MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. After graduating he moved to Beijing in 2013, initially teaching English before taking on marketing and management roles across several organisations in China.
In May 2015 he founded the Spittoon Arts Collective, starting with a single poetry night at Mado Bar on Baochao Hutong in Beijing’s Gulou district. Within five years Spittoon had grown into one of the largest English-language literary collectives in China — seven cities, international chapters in Gothenburg, Lisbon, Addis Ababa, Riga, and Tucson, eight issues of a critically acclaimed literary magazine dedicated to Chinese writing in English translation, sixty volunteers, and more than two hundred events.
He returned to the UK in 2020 and pivoted into professional marketing, completing the CIM Level 6 Diploma with multiple distinctions while working across several roles. At the University of Sheffield Confucius Institute he led multi-channel campaigns and large-scale events, driving a 31% rise in adult course enrolments, a 54% growth in cultural course participation, and delivering a sold-out 1,200-capacity Chinese New Year Spectacular. He currently works as Digital Marketing Manager at Vivid Creative in Sheffield, where he delivers multi-channel campaigns across social, email, web, and print.
This site
Matthew-byrne.com has two purposes. The Spittoon section is the definitive English-language archive of the collective — 264 articles from the original WeChat channel, republished here as a complete record of what was built. The Undergods section is a blog about AI tools, workflows, and automation, written from daily use rather than theory.
Spittoon — the archive of the international arts collective Matthew founded in Beijing in 2015. Explore the archive →
Undergods — practical writing about AI tools and workflows, and what automation makes possible. Read the blog →
Qualifications and certifications
- MA Creative Writing — Manchester Metropolitan University
- BA (Hons) English and Creative Writing — Manchester Metropolitan University
- CIM Level 6 Diploma in Professional Digital Marketing
- CIM Level 4 Certificate in Professional Digital Marketing
- ACIM — Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing
- Specialist Award in AI Marketing — CIM
- Specialist Award in SEO and Paid Search Management — CIM
- Certified Digital Marketing Specialist in Search — DMI
- PPC Google Ads — CIM
- HSK3 Mandarin Chinese
Get in touch
For enquiries about work, Spittoon, or Undergods — use the contact page or find me on LinkedIn.
Contact → mtfbyrne@hotmail.com
LinkedIn → Matthew Byrne | LinkedIn
Matthew Byrne | Writer, Founder, Digital Marketer 