Thomas M Disch

Thomas M Disch (Born February 2, 1940) is an American science fiction author and poet. He has been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards several times.

Thomas M Disch was born in Des Moines, Iowa. His work began appearing in the science fiction magazines in the 1960s, and his first novel, The Genocides, appeared in 1965. He soon became known as part of the New Wave, writing for New Worlds and other avant-garde publications. His critically acclaimed novels of that time included Camp Concentration and 334. In the 1980s he moved from science fiction to horror, with a series of books set in Minneapolis: The Businessman, The M.D., The Priest, and The Sub.

In 1999 Thomas M Disch won the Nonfiction Hugo for The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, a sardonic look at the field, as well as the Michael Braude Award for Light Verse. Among his other nonfiction work, he has written theatre and opera criticism for The New York Times, The Nation, and other periodicals. He has also published several volumes of poetry.

Thomas M Disch was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on 2 February 1940. Because of a polio epidemic in 1946, his mother Helen home-schooled him for a year. As a result, he skipped from kindergarten to second grade. Disch's first formal education happened at Catholic schools; this experience shows itself parts of his work, which contain scathing criticisms of the Catholic Church. The family moved in 1953 to the Twin Cities in Minnesota, rejoining both pairs of grandparents. In Minneapolis public schools, Disch discovered his long-term loves of science fiction, drama, and poetry. He describes poetry as his stepping-stone to the literary world. A teacher, Jeannette Cochran, assigned 100 lines of poetry to be memorized. Disch wound up memorizing ten times as much (Heacox). His early fascination continues to influence his work with poetic form and the direction of his criticism.

After graduating from high school in 1957, Thomas M Disch worked a summer job as a trainee steel draftsman - just one of the many jobs on his path to becoming a writer. Saving enough to move to New York City, he found a Manhattan apartment and began to cast his energies in many directions. He worked as a (literal) spear-carrier for the Metropolitan Opera, then at a bookstore, then for the newspaper. Just when he seemed to be getting work closer to his love of language, he turned 18 and enlisted in the army. Disch's incompatibility with the armed forces quickly resulted in a nearly three-month commitment to a mental hospital. After his discharge, he returned to New York and continued to pursue the arts in his own indirect way: a job in a theater cloakroom that let him peer in on Broadway.

Eventually, Thomas M Disch got another job with an insurance company and went to school. A brief flirtation with architecture school led him to night school at New York University, where classes on novella writing and utopian fiction developed his tastes for some of the common forms and topics of science fiction. In May of 1962, he decided to write a short story instead of study for his midterms. He sold the story, The Double Timer, for $112.50 (Francaville). Having begun his literary career, he did not return to NYU but rather took another series of odd jobs such as bank teller, mortuary assistant, and copy editor - all of which served to fuel what he referred to as his night-time "writing habit". Over the next few years he wrote more science fiction stories, but also branched out into poetry; his first published poem, "Echo and Narcissus", appeared in the Minnesota Review's Summer 1964 issue (Davis).

Writing had become the dominant focus of his life. Thomas M Disch described his personal transformation from dilettante to "someone who knows what he wants to do and is so busy doing it that he doesn't have much time for anything else." Several books followed, including science fiction novels and stories, gothic works, criticism, plays, a libretto for an opera of Frankenstein, prose and verse children's books such as A Child's Garden of Grammar, and ten poetry collections.

His poetry includes experiments within traditional forms, such as a collaborative sonnet cycle Highway Sandwiches and Haikus of an AmPart, while others like The Dark Old House mix stricter and freer form. Like other popular American poets, he often uses humor and irony to power his poems. His two major books of poetry criticism, The Castle of Indolence: On Poetry, Poets, and Poetasters and The Castle of Perseverance: Job Opportunities in Contemporary Poetry focus on what make poetry work, what makes it popular, and how poetry can re-establish a place in modern popular culture.

Thomas M Disch's writing includes substantial freelance work, such as regular book and theater reviews for The Nation, Harpers, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and Entertainment Weekly. Recognition from his award-winning books led to a year as "artist-in-residence" at William and Mary College. Currently, he writes from his upstate New York home, which he shares with his partner of three decades.

Selected Bibliography

Novels

• The Genocides (1965)
• Mankind Under the Leash (1966)
  • Variant Title: The Puppies of Terra (1966)
• The Puppies of Terra (1966)
• Echo Round His Bones (1967)
  • Magazine/Anthology Appearances:
  • Echo Round His Bones (Part 1 of 2) (1966)
• Camp Concentration (1968)
• The Prisoner: I Am Not a Number! (1969)
• On Wings of Song (1979)
  • Magazine/Anthology Appearances:
  • On Wings of Song (Part 1 of 3) (1979)
  • On Wings of Song (Part 2 of 3) (1979)
  • On Wings of Song (Part 3 of 3) (1979)
• Neighboring Lives (1980) with Charles Naylor
• The Businessman: A Tale of Terror (1984)
• The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars (1988)
• The Silver Pillow (1988)
• The M.D. (1991)
• The Priest (1994)
• The Sub (1999)

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