Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, and utterly terrible dancer. He is the singer/guitarist for the indie rock/power-pop the Roland High Life, as well as a staff writer for the New York Times’ Wirecutter and a regular contributor at BoingBoing.net. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is the single greatest atrocity committed against mankind. He is a graduate of Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD ('13) & Emerson College ('08).
That's right: not only did we revamp the entire Wirecutter website with a cool new look and fancy mobile friendliness, but I've also published my first official guide for them! Check it out:
Ironically, I also shaved my beard off this morning, so my author photo is no longer accurate.
That's right: I just signed with a literary agent! The Kepner Agency was so impressed with my Irish Boston supernatural punk rock noir tentatively titled Pints of 'Gansett Make You Strong that they want to make something happen with it!
Excuse me while I go dance over here in the corner.
In the meantime, you can listen to the official unofficial Pints of 'Gansett Make You Strong soundtrack to tide you over, 'cause publishing takes a while.
Clarion is a highly-renowned training ground for sci-fi/fantasy writers, so naturally, I wanted to make an impression. Hence, I introduced myself to my cohort and award-winning instructors by writing a recursive metafictional time travel story. The main “plot” was only about two pages, followed by another thirty pages of footnotes, each with multiple internal references to other footnotes, all to explain the theoretical science behind the causal loop that lead to the main characters’ spacetime-crossed romance. This had the effect of taking the reader on a self-directed non-linear journey through characters’ pasts, presents, and futures, in an endless circle of effect-cause-effect that was unique to each reader.
That was 2013. Me and the other 17 members of my cohort still talk regularly; some of them have already become award-winning authors in their own rights. And to this day, not a week goes by without at least one of them giving me shit for that story. But I have a good excuse for my obnoxious ambitions:
A little support went a long way for a young woman who refused to give up. Now, she’s giving back. (Originally published on Upworthy.
Read More"We need to evolve and adapt to learning that best fits our kids — not the people serving, teaching, administering, and tutoring the kid."
Read MoreThe school's outdoor latrines overflowed into the local water supply.
Understandably, this made some people quite upset. But Mwasaru saw this as an opportunity to turn something revolting into a revolution.
If he could redirect the overflowing human waste, it could give them cleaner water and help the school save money on fire and electricity.
Read MoreOnce there was a Russian tree
and she loved a little boy
and everyday the boy would come
and beg the tree for dirt on Hillary Clinton.
In 2009, Scott McGready stumbled on a massive phishing scam targeting his company's email server.
Read MoreEver wonder what it's like to be hacked? Sarah Jeong did. So naturally, she decided to ask someone to hack her.
Read MoreWhen Heather Campbell-Lieberman first applied to teach at Lakota East High School in Ohio, she had one request:She needed the school to let her students give away a thousand dollars.
Read MoreThe storyteller in me is always interested in what goes on in other people’s heads. There are various cliches about how every villain is a hero in their own story, and I generally think that’s true — both in fiction, and in real life.
And as more and more information comes out about the whole Russia-Trump-Comey-Hillary-Email-Clusterfuck, I think it’s important for us all to remember that these are actual human beings, who, like all of us, are often forced to make decisions with limited time and with even more limited information, and that sometimes, they get it wrong.
(Except for Trump, obviously; he’s little more than a spoiled chaos demonbaby in the middle of his greatest tantrum yet.)
Kate Hoit always dreamed of joining the FBI. Then she was deployed to Iraq in 2004, and her life took a different turn.
Read MoreIn June 2016, my wife and I headed to Ireland for a week-long vacation. It was my first time on Emerald soil, despite my unabashed affection for my cultural heritage. While I certainly wish I’d had the chance to visit earlier, there was also something poetic about making the trip during the centennial celebration of the Easter Rising, the first major conflict in the struggle for Irish Independence.
We certainly didn’t expect to hop on a plane to Ireland the day after the Brexit vote. Nor did I think anything at the time about the fact that I listened to "Hamilton" for the first times ever as we drove through Ireland that week, and in that specific political context.
So naturally, this got me thinkin'...
The FBI had more than 500 pages of records on Barnette. Now, nearly five decades later, he and his family got to see those pages.
Read MoreAbortion rates in the United States just reached a record low, dropping below a million per year for the first time since Roe v. Wade.
That information comes from a new study by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization committed to sexual and reproductive health. It's fair to say a hallmark reduction in any medical procedure is generally a good thing.
Read More"Americans want the good without the bad," Ebenstein says. "Life without death. Pleasure without pain. Light without dark. But that doesn’t exist."
Read More"'Saudi Girls Revolution' is an attempt to show the rest of the world that there’s a lot more to us as Arab women," Ahmed said. "We’re strong. We’re powerful. We know we overcome. We’re badass. We’re so many other things."
Read MoreMichelle Smith, 21, was understandably nervous when her mom found the BDSM restraints she had hidden under her bed.
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