Tom Pyun is a novelist and a writer of creative nonfiction. He earned his MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and has been awarded fellowships at Vermont Studio Center, VONA, and Tin House. His writing has appeared in The Rumpus and Joyland. 

Tom didn’t begin writing creatively until the age of thirty-five. He studied sociology at Vassar College and public health epidemiology at Columbia University. After an almost two-decade-long career in the philanthropic, nonprofit, and governmental sectors, he has finally accepted his calling as a storyteller, artist, and healer. 

SOMETHING CLOSE TO NOTHING is his first novel.  

Awards

  • Gemini Ink Mentorship with Amanda Ward, 2016-17 (one of two selected nationally)

  • Second Place, “Mothers Always Know,” Blue Mesa Review, Summer Writing Contest

  • Nominated for Pushcart Prize 2015, creative nonfiction, by Blue Mesa Review

  • Nominated for Best of the Net 2015, nonfiction, by Blue Mesa Review

  • Honorable Mention, Scintillating Starts Fiction Contest 2015, Writer Advice

Notable Workshops, Fellowships, and Residencies

  • Fine Arts Work Center, Fiction Workshop with Justin Torres, 2017 

  • The Writer’s Hotel, New York, NY, 2017 with Scott Wolven

  • Tin House Winter Workshop, Newport, OR, 2017 with T. Geronimo Johnson

  • Vermont Studio Center Fiction Residency with Christine Schutt, 2016

  • VONA/Voices, Travel Writing Fellowship with Faith Adiele, 2015

Public Readings

  • LitCrawl, Joyland, San Francisco, CA, October 2018

  • LitQuake, moderated interview with Wesley Yang, San Francisco, CA, October 2018

  • Writers with Drinks, curated by Charlie Jane Anders, San Francisco, CA, July 2017

  • The Racket: “War,” Adobe Books, San Francisco, CA, May 2017 

  • Gemini Ink Mentorship Celebration, San Antonio, TX, April 2017

  • Litquake San Francisco, Eleven Eleven, October 2016

  • Bay Area Generations: A Reading Series for the Ages, San Francisco, CA, January 2016

  • The Bloom – A Reading Series, Laurel Bookstore, Oakland, CA, October 2015

  • Reed Launch Party, Books, Inc., Mountain View, CA, May 2015

Teaching Experience 

  • Writing Tutor, 826 Echo Park, 2018-19 

  • Writing Instructor English 99A, Prison University Project at San Quentin, Winter 2014

Education

  • MFA, Creative Writing – Fiction, Antioch University, Los Angeles, CA, 2018-2021

  • MPH, Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York, NY, 2005-2009

  • BA, Sociology, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1995-99