Tom Whalen (born October 28, 1948) is an American writer and scholar.

Education and career

Whalen graduated from the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) in 1970 with a B.A. in English, and earned a M.A. in writing from Hollins College (Virginia) in 1971.

He attended Tulane University in 1974 and the University of California, Berkeley, in 1981. In 2008 he received a Ph.D. in American Literature from Freiburg University, Germany where he was a visiting professor in North American Studies. Whalen also was a visiting professor in American Film and Literature 2006–09 at the University of Stuttgart.^{[citation needed]} Whalen also was the Director of Creative Writing at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.^[1][2] Whalen's fiction has been praised for its "inventive, distinctive language."^[3]

In 2005, he wrote the screenplay for the 2007 animated film Flatland, based on the novel of the same name.^[4] In 2008, he taught a film class at the Staatliche Akademie der Künste Stuttgart.^[5]

Honors and distinctions

• Caketrain Chapbook Competition, 2006.
• Texas Review Press Novella Award, 1996.
• The Missouri Review Editor's Prize (Essay), 1993.
• Distinguished Teacher, Presidential Scholars Commission, 1984, 1994.
• Pro Helvetia (Switzerland) Research Grants Summer 1988 and Summer 1990.
• Louisiana Artist Fellowship in Literature, 1985.
• New Orleans Public Schools Teacher of the Year, 1984.
• National Endowment for the Humanities Grant, SUNY-Buffalo, Summer 1984.
• Outstanding Arts Teacher, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, 1984.
• McNeese State University Research Grant, 1976.
• Hollins College Fellowship, 1970–71.

Works

Novels

• The Camel's Back. With Michael Presti. New Orleans and Tuscaloosa: Portals Press, 1993.
• Roithamer's Universe. New Orleans: Portals Press, 1996.
• A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife: On the Other Side Known Commonly As "The Little Book." With Daniel Quinn. New York: Bantam Books, 1997.
• The President in Her Towers. New York: Ellipsis Press, 2012.
• The Straw That Broke. San Francisco: Black Scat Books, 2014.

Short fiction

• The Eustachia Stories: An Astroromance. Illustrations by Linda Francis. California: Velocities. 1985.
• Elongated Figures. New York: Red Dust, 1991.
• The Baby. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2001.
• Report from the Dump. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2001.
• The Internecine Wars: from THE PRESIDENT IN HER TOWERS: Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2001.
• Concerning the Vampire. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2001.
• Twenty-Six Novels. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2001.
• The Cosmic Messenger: from TALES FROM THE HYBRID POOL. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2002.
• Memoirs from a Mousehole: from THE STRAW THAT BROKE. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2002.
• Quantum Surge in O Central. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2003.
• An Exchange of Letters. Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada: Parsifal Press, 2007.

Poetry

• The Spare Key. Seventeen Poems. Nacogdoches, Texas: The Seven Deadly Sins Press, 1977.
• The Lonely Person's Garden. Prose Poetry. Nacogdoches, Texas: The Seven Deadly Sins Press, 1980.
• Winter Coat. New York: Red Dust, 1998.
• The Wrong Mistake. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2001.
• Strange Alleys: Prose Poems. Illustrations by Nick Wadley. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2004.IV.
• Green Man and the Priests. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2007.
• Dolls: Prose Poems. Pittsburgh, PA: Caketrain Press, 2007.

Criticism

• "What an Edifice of Artifice!": Russell H. Greenan's It Happened in Boston?. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2008.
• It's What We Do Best: Essays on War Films by Godard, Malick, and Carpenter. Black River Falls, WI: Obscure Publications, 2009.
• A Bucket of Maggots, A Can of Worms: Methods of Order in Greenan's Macabre Collage. College Hill Review No. 7, Spring 2011.
• The Birth of Death and Other Comedies: The Novels of Russell H. Greenan. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive, Spring 2011.