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Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, and utterly terrible dancer. He is the singer/guitarist for the indie rock/power-pop the Roland High Life, as well as a staff writer for the New York Times’ Wirecutter and a regular contributor at BoingBoing.net. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is the single greatest atrocity committed against mankind. He is a graduate of Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD ('13) & Emerson College ('08).

Welcome to my, erm, gay Soviet zombie ballet? →

April 30, 2019

I have a new short story out in the latest issue (#8) of Serial Pulp Magazine called “Colder Bodies, Colder Hearts.” I wrote the first draft back in 2013, at the Clarion Writer’s Workshop, and it is, in fact, very loosely based on the real-life invention of the heart-lung machine, particularly this weird-ass Soviet propaganda video.

The original print run has already sold out, but you can still get a digital copy for your Kindle/Nook/iPad/Whathaveyou.tech.

I’ve been searching for a home for this story for a while now, and I’m glad it’s finally out there in the world. It’s different from a lot of the things I normally write, but I hope you like it anyway.

So uhhhhh I just signed with a literary agent? So that's cool?

September 22, 2017

That's right: I just signed with a literary agent! The Kepner Agency was so impressed with my Irish Boston supernatural punk rock noir tentatively titled Pints of 'Gansett Make You Strong that they want to make something happen with it!

Excuse me while I go dance over here in the corner.

In the meantime, you can listen to the official unofficial Pints of 'Gansett Make You Strong soundtrack to tide you over, 'cause publishing takes a while.

"Hidden Youth: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History" is now available, and totally worth it. I swear.

November 21, 2016

My first professional-rate short story is now available in print from Crossed Genres! "An Baile na mBan" is just one of 22 tales of fantastical diversity in the pre-1930s world, all featured in Hidden Youth: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History. (Perhaps not-so-surprisingly, mine's about pucas, Travellers, and abortion during the Irish Civil War.)

Publisher's Weekly said, "The offerings are solid, entertaining, and generally fascinating, conjuring up voices and experiences not often heard. This collection is well worth checking out for all fans of speculative fiction."

From the publisher...

“The sequel to the World Fantasy and Locus Award-nominated anthology Long Hidden, Hidden Youth focuses on children: underage protagonists marginalized in their time. 22 excellent stories ranging across nearly 2,400 years and spanning the globe, Hidden Youth reveals the stories of young people whose lives have been pushed to the margins of history.”

Buy now

If you care about #DiversityInSF — or diversity in general — you should help make this awesome anthology happen.

June 27, 2016

The sequel to Locus and World Fantasy Award-nominated book Long Hidden edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older, Hidden Youth is a new anthology featuring fantastical short stories from the margins of history — young adult sci-fi and fantasy stories about oppressed and marginalized groups throughout the generations.

Also, it includes a story by me. "An Baile na mBan" is about Irish Travellers, Irish Nationalism, abortion, and, uhhh, sketchy púca faeries using women to enact their revenge on the Provisional IRA. Obviously.

Did I mention that this will be my first professionally-published (as in, paying SFWA rates) piece of original fiction?

So as you might figure, it means a lot to me. But it won't actually happen unless the anthology reaches its Kickstarter goal of $23,000 by Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

tl;dr — help a brother out, and tell your friends to do the same. KTHXBYE.

God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

November 11, 2014

Kurt Vonnegut would have been 92 years old today, Veterans Day 2014 — which is particularly ironic because although Vonnegut was a veteran himself, his anti-war sentiments were anything but subtle ("I'll be damned if it was worth it," he once wrote in a letter to home when he was deployed). Admittedly, he may have been biased, seeing as how he was held as a POW in World War II during the bombing of Dresden, which inspired his psuedo-autobiographical-time-travel-alien-abduction novel Slaughterhouse-Five. That's the power of science fiction, kids: when a personal experience is so traumatic that you struggle for years to find a way to write about it, just add some Tralfamadorians and some non-linear structure, and somehow through all that fantastical dressing, you will find the heart of the story that you were otherwise too close to and too scared to find...

My Clarion cohort on the first day, with instructor Andy Duncan and program director Shelley Streeby

Support Me In the Clarion Write-a-thon!

June 19, 2014

When I got the call that I was accepted to Clarion, I was standing on the waterfront in Valdez, Alaska. My fiancé, Bevin, was in the middle of tech week for a play that she was producing when Tanya called me and said, "Hey, do you want to spend 6 weeks this summer writing fiction with a team of incredible teachers and other aspiring weirdos like yourself? Also it starts in 4 weeks and we need to have your answer tomorrow." Coordinating a phone call with your partner over a 4-hour time difference to ask her if she would mind if you went away again and also spend all of your money on playing make-believe in Californa is, well, not a conversation I'd wish on anyone. I'm kidding, of course; it went very well (clearly), because Bevin is incredibly supportive of me. But it was still a big decision.

If you know me in person, then you know I've talked about it enough: the Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD was an incredible and life-changing experience for me as both a person and a writer. And I wouldn't have been able to do it if not for scholarship support from the Clarion Foundation, which helped to ease some of the financial load. Don't get me wrong, if I had absolutely bankrupted myself and lost my job in order to attend Clarion, it still would have been worth it (neither of those things actually happened, for which I'm grateful). And so naturally, I want to give back.

The Greatest Feminist Mermaid Horror Story Fairytale Ever Written

June 12, 2014

This is Alyssa Wong — or as I like to call her, Death Cupcake. Don't let her seemingly adorable exterior deceive you (or do — she'd probably prefer it if you do, as it gives her the advantage when she swoops in to devour your soul): Alyssa is a wonderful, wonderful person who writes some of the most brutal stories I've encountered. Alyssa's stories, much like their creator, are a perfect marriage of cutesy moments and grotesque, gut-wrenching horror. This seemingly incongruous combination is precisely what makes her and her stories so wonderful.

But don't let my biased voice fool you. Take it from SF Site, who just interviewed Alyssa about The Fisher Queen, her first professional fiction publication. I had the pleasure of reading the first draft of The Fisher Queen at Clarion in the summer of 2013, and it's one of the stories that has stuck with me ever since. The best way I can describe it is as a Feminist Mermaid Horror story. If that sounds weird to, well, that's part of the charm of Alyssa's work — she can write a feminist mermaid horror story and actually pull it off. I was legitimately squirming by the end of this story.

Alyssa was one-third of the affectionately named "Team Tiny Bonesaw" at Clarion 2013, alongside Isabel Yap and Gabby Santiago

Again, don't take my word for it — you can download the entire story for free on Amazon in this exclusive sampler digest of Fantasy & Science Fiction. And yes, I would suggest you do so — if for no other reason than to appease the Death Cupcake Queen, so that she might have mercy on your soul once she rules the fiction landscape (which she will).

And lest I've frightened you too much, here's Alyssa posing with the UCSD Triton. She's get a weird thing for mer-people — but hey, I don't judge.

Oh, and One More Thing...

September 23, 2013

Who's got two months and totally has picture (along with the rest of his talented Clarion 2013 cohort) in this month's issue of Locus Magazine, like some sort of real-life science fiction/fantasy author? THIS GUY.

That's me in the center, with the Red Sox shirt and sunglasses. No, not that guy with the sunglasses, that's Will Kaufman (though you should probably know him, too, because the dude writes the weirdest fucking stories that will absolutely break your heart and blow your mind and he's kind of brilliant and hilarious and also I love him dearly). I'm the handsome one next to him.

*This month's issue of Locus also includes features on two of my incredible Clarion mentors, Nalo Hopkinson & Cory Doctorow, as if my handsome mug weren't reason enough to check it out.

The Origins of Pumpkin Beer

September 23, 2013

New post on Five By Five Hundred about the secret history of that wretched poison that people actually pretend to like. Ugh.

The End

January 28, 2013

Okay, so clearly I've been working on lots of larger writing pieces, which has gotten in the way of my standard Five By Five Hundred writing. But hey, writing is writing, so here's another short excerpt from a piece I've been working, only this one is the very end of the story. So, ya know. Spoilers, sweetie.

"The End of The Story" on Five By Five Hundred

Quantum Fiction!

January 21, 2013

Here's a little excerpt from a story I've been working on in a few different mediums (I've shared a few other snippets, too, if you'd like to piece them together and figure it out...). It's science-y and physics-y and all timey-wimey, but hopefully it's at least a little bit enjoyable on its own!

"Quantum Physiology, or The Origins of Nonlinear Molecular Teleportation" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Ghosts of Boston

January 7, 2013

Here's a little excerpt from a larger piece of fiction I've been working on, posted over at Five By Five Hundred. It's completely out of context, but that's okay; I think it works alright on it's own.

"Back On The Streets" at FiveByFiveHundred.com

In Progress

November 26, 2012

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Today on Five By Five Hundred, I've posted a little preview of a larger prose serial I'm working on. So it's cryptic, sure, as part of a much larger whole, but I think it stands decently on its own. Enjoy!

"The Crash" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Nonlinear Romance

September 17, 2012

Today over at Five By Five Hundred, I've included a brief excerpt from a short story & play I'm working on about love and time travel, and an endlessly cyclical relationship where both parties start at different times. (and then of course as I type that I think "ah shit, now everyone's gonna think I'm ripping off of River Song and The Doctor, or I'm trying to re-write The Time Traveler's Wife. Oh well). There might be more from the story next week; or, I might do something entirely different. Who knows! (answer: you do, if you're a time traveler)

"When We First Met (excerpt)" at FiveByFiveHundred.com

The Past, The Present, and The Imperfect Future Walk Into a Bar...

March 4, 2012

Things have been less than ideal as of late, as my girlfriend's best friend quite abruptly passed away from an unexpected heart attack at the age of 28. As you can imagine, it's been a very rough and emotional week. I could very well fill this blog with my thoughts and feelings on the occasion, but anything factual I would attempt to type would feel disingenuous, so here are a few posts catching up on Five By Five Hundred that were inspired by the situation.

Rest in peace, Crystal Gomes. I guess a light as bright as yours is bound to burn out much too fast.

"Being Tense" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

"The Old Maid on the Bar Stool" (part one) (part two) on FiveByFiveHundred.com

It's All In The Ears

January 15, 2012

So apparently there are some people out there who are absolutely disgusted by the sight of attached earlobes. (I assume that these are the same people that experience actual physical revulsion at the sound of the word "moist") (you know who you are) Still, it got me thinking a bit about bigotry, and the features that people are born with that lead to discrimination. Thus, instead of stooping to making fun of Jeph Loeb again, I decided to write a short fiction piece about a world in which those with attached earlobes suffer from the same kind of humiliation, discrimination, and hate as some of the more persecuted minority groups today. I guess what I'm trying to say is, attached earlobes is the new Black. I mean, not that — I don't mean like — I'm not a racist, but — oh, forget it.

"Lobe Lobe Lobe" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise Daoibh

January 1, 2012

That's "Happy New Years" in the Irish. Or, more literally, it's kind of "A Prosperous Year Upon All Of You" but it's the same gesture. Anyway, here we are. 2012. You know what that means. I encourage you to live every day like it's volume 3 of The Invisibles.

(...you *have* read The Invisibles, yes?)

Today on FiveByFiveHundred.com, I weave a fantastical tale about a New Years romance gone horribly, horribly awry, a yarn which may or may not be based on someone whom I actually met at a party this weekend and may or may not have wanted to inflict violence upon because of the incredibly douche-tastic things that s/he may or may have said ("Like, you can totally just tell like a lot about someone if they smoke like American Spirits, right?" OH MY GOD SHUT UP).

Okay. That's it. I feel better now. I swear.

"Stranger In a Strange Year, or, All-American Spirits" at FiveByFiveHundred.com

And just in case you haven't read it...

Such a beautiful moment at the end of the world. Gets me every time. *sniff**sniff*

Attack of the #NaNoWriMoNoceros

November 21, 2011

We're two-thirds of the way through the annual National Novel Writing Month, and over at Five By Five Hundred, I've decided to offer you a little help in finishing your novel. Don't worry, you don't have to thank me. I did it all out of the kindness of my heart. This 500-word novel excerpt will fit into any and everyone's great book-to-be, regardless of the genre or subject matter. Seriously. No one will even notice that all of you have the exact same three paragraphs somewhere in the book. Go ahead. Take it. It's all yours.

"Excerpt From Your In-Progress Novel" at FiveByFiveHundred.com

#1stWorldProblems: The Novel

August 12, 2011

Apparently Nicole Richie is a New York Times Bestselling Novelist. I'm sorry, I'm not sure if you heard me correctly. Nicole Richie is a New York Times Bestselling Novelist.

Upon discovering this fact, I took upon myself to read the debut novel responsible for awarding her such a distinction.

While it would be harsh and unfair to say that I regret this decision, I can confidently say that it was hardly a good decision. Next time such a thought crosses my scattered and impulsive mind, I implore you to stop me and question my poor decision-making skills.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my objective critical review of the novel over on DailyGenoshan.com.

Review: "The Truth About Diamonds," by Nicole Richie

The Plot Finds a Life

June 26, 2011

Today on FiveByFiveHundred.com, I tried another small experiment meta-flashfiction experiment (but I swear, it's not nearly as pretentious as that phrasing sounds. Honest). It was partially inspired by (or possibly expounds upon?) a previous piece that I wrote for the website, titled The NightShift (which is, in turn, the inspiration for a fictional comic book fictionally written by the protagonist of my play True Believers), because sometimes, I guess I just like writing stories about stories. But, you know. With heart.