Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA
• Education—M.F.A., University of Virginia
• Awards—National Book Foundation 5 under 35 Award
• Currently—lives in near Charlottesville, Virginia
Thomas Pierce was born and raised in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He received a Master's in creative writing from the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, where he still lives with his wife and daughters.
Pierce spent five years with National Public Radio as a blogger, writer, and producer, work that he says has informed his fiction, particularly his appreciation for "clarity," as well as and the need to be "interesting and engaging."
When you write a radio script, there’s software you can use with a little clock in the upper right-hand corner that tells you the piece’s length in terms of time.… One of my short stories might steal forty-two minutes from your life. I want to use your time wisely.
Pierce's acclaimed short story collection, Hall of Small Mammals, was published in 2015, eventually winning him the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic, Oxford American, and elsewhere.
Afterlives, Pierce's debut novel, was released in 2018. (Adapted from online sources, including the publisher and The Paris Review. Retrieved 2/4/2018.)