thom is a writer, multimedia artist/performer, and academic. I Met Death & Sex Through My Friend, Tom Meuley, his next novel, takes on the lengths people go to erase themselves to matter (Guernica Editions 2024). Read testimonials and reviews of his first novel The Drifts (Coach House 2010). In June 2024, he will return to the annual conference of ACCUTE (Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English) to present on catastrophe as a generative tool for creative writers and scholars. He is the guest editor of the Summer 2025 American Book Review special issue on failure and, along with Lucas Crawford, co-editing the upcoming anthology Monosyllabic Queer Theory. In 2023, his essay “The Plague Came With No Directions” (The New Quarterly Fall 2022) won a National Magazine Award and the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Prize. thom regularly contributes scholarly work to academic conferences and publications. Last year, he presented on a panel he convened at the 2023 Modern Language Association (MLA) conference: Disrupting Failure: Perspectives on Literary Aesthetics, Structure, and the Collapse of Intention.
A dedicated teacher, he seeks to help artists and others to uncover their unique contributions. His students write, direct, and produce film, TV, and theatre. They have placed in major international writing competitions, had their work optioned, and are forging professional writing and performance careers. More than a few have gone on to Oxford, Columbia, NYU, UCLA, Loyola, and other important film and media programs.
Currently, thom is SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at York University where he is using film to theorize stigma as a creative and critical instrument. He is a former Vanier Doctoral Scholar, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) award winner, Dr. William S. Lewis Doctoral Fellow, and Magee Doctoral Fellow. He has a long history as a professional actor (The Fugitive, Seinfeld, Grace Under Fire, General Hospital, Saving Hope). A bio is here.