THOMAS LARSON

Thomas Wallin Larson

858-717-1293

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Education:

Masters of Arts in English and American literature from the University of California, San Diego, 1986.

Graduate courses in music at the University of California, San Diego, 1982 and 1983.

Bachelor of Music, University of New Mexico, 1982. 

 Writing Experience:

Staff writer, San Diego Reader, 1999 - present. Investigative articles, narrative nonfiction, and profiles.

Contributing writer, University of San Diego Magazine, 2004 - 2007. Profiles.

Freelance writer and book reviewer, 1988 - present. Quarterly reviewer for Contrary Magazine online.

Music critic, Santa Fe New Mexican, 1980 - 1983.

Major Publications:

Forthcoming: The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings." Pegasus Books, September 2010.

The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative. Ohio University / Swallow Press, 2007.

Forty-five cover stories and ten inside features for the San Diego Reader, 1999 - present.

Editor: A Year in Ink: San Diego Writers’ Ink Anthology. San Diego Ink Spot Press, 2008

Hundreds of essays, reviews, articles, and memoir pieces published, 1980 - present. Literary journals, magazines, and newspapers include Potomac Review, Chicago Reader, The Cream City Review, Cimarron Review, Hawaii Review, Boulevard, American Music, The Santa Fe New Mexican, The San Diego Union-Tribune, AWP Chronicle, Counterpunch, Free Inquiry, and Georgia Review.

Highlights:

"Driving Cars in Clown Suits: David Shields Terrifies Novelists." Review of Reality Hunger: A Manifesto by David Shields. AGNI Online. June 11, 2010.

Special Focus Editor: American Book Review issue, "Memoir Now." Vol 30, No. 3, March/April 2009: Introduction: "A New Kind of Narrative Truth."

"Mrs. Wright’s Bookshop." New Letters. Vol 74, No. 3, Summer 2008. Winner: Reader’s Award for Nonfiction.

"The Son Not Taken." Tampa Review 36. Winter 2009.

"Identity Crisis: What Is a Memoir Anyway?" Etude: New Voices in Literary Nonfiction. Winter 2009.

"Is the Unexamined Life Worth Voting For? Memoirs of Clinton, Edwards, and Obama." Amazon.com / Shorts, 2008.

"The Woman on the Corner." Amazon.com / Shorts, 2007.

"Beguiled by Mozart's Image." Cadillac Cicatrix. Winter 2008.

"Our Samuel Clemens: Mark Twain in the Age of Personal Disclosure." Southern Humanities Review, Spring 2004.

"Almost Beautiful: A Life of Nathanael West." The Gettysburg Review, Winter 2001.

"‘In Spite of Everything’: The Definitive Indefinite Anne Frank." Antioch Review, Winter 2000.

"Skull and Roses—Reflections on Enshrining Georgia O’Keeffe." Southwest Review, Volume 83, No. 1, 1998.

"Freshman Comp, 1967." The Anchor Essay Annual: The Best of 1997, ed. Philip Lopate, Doubleday.

Teaching & Lecture Experience:

"Writing the Memoir" & "Keep the Memoir Going" at San Diego Writers' Ink and at Ghost Ranch Santa Fe, 2007 - 2010.

Featured speaker: Murry's Annual Dinner, a fundraiser for The Missouri Review, May 2, 2010.

Panel: "Memoir Form and Ethics in the Age of the Oprah Book Club." AWP Conference, Denver, April 2010.

Panel: "Must a Memoir Read Like a Novel?" AWP Conference, Chicago, February 2009.

Five tours: "Memoir Writing" workshops and lectures on memoir throughout the United States, 2007 - 2010.

Writing Instructor, San Diego Writer’s Cooperative, The Ink Spot, 2006 - present.

Memoir Writing Group Facilitator, 2004 - present. Private read-and-critique groups.

Writing Instructor, University of California, San Diego, Extension, 2003 - 2008. "Personal Narrative Writing" and "Memoir Writing."

Professor of English, 1990 - 2000, San Diego City College.

References:　

Alison Maderia-Joseph, UCSD Extension: Arts, Humanities & Languages, 858-964-1067, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Heather Goodwillie, copy editor, San Diego Reader, 619-235-3000, ext. 283, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Judy Reeves, writer. 619-284-1343 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it