Author Bio
• Birth—1948
• Raised—Pomona, California, USA
• Education—M.F.A., University of California, Irvine
• Currently—lives in southern California
Kem Nunn is an American fiction novelist, surfer, magazine and television writer from California. His novels have been described as "surf-noir" for their dark themes, political overtones and surf settings. He is the author of five novels, including his seminal surf novel Tapping the Source and, more recently, Chance. According to the San Diego Union Tribune:
He remembers being mesmerized the first time he saw surfers while camping with his parents at Salt Creek near Dana Point.
Although Nunn was a skinny, not-so-athletic kid who didn't swim very well, the allure of being propelled by waves was irresistible. His first rides were on air mats and crude homemade surfboards. He merely dabbled with surfing as a youth. It wasn't until he was deep into his 20s that he became immersed in the surfer's life.
He drifted from his teens into his 20s, turning underachieving into an art decades before eternal slacking became fashionable with Generation X.
"My 20s were a lost decade. I didn't do much of anything," he said.
—Terry Rodgers, San Diego Union Tribune, August 17, 2004
Nunn has collaborated with producer David Milch on the HBO Western drama series Deadwood. Milch and Nunn co-created the HBO series John from Cincinnati, a surfing series set in Imperial Beach, California which premiered in 2007.
Kem Nunn grew up in Pomona and Northern California. In addition to Tapping the Source (1984), he also wrote Dogs of Winter (1997), Unassigned Territory (1986), Pomona Queen (1992), Tijuana Straits (2004), and Chance (2014). He received an MFA in creative writing from UC Irvine. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/15/2014 .)