Thomas Iver Bradley (born March 17, 1954) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

and writer of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

. He is the author of The Sam Edwine Pentateuch, a five-book series, various volumes of which have been nominated for the Editor's Book Award, the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Bobst Prize, and the AWP Award Series in the Novel. Tom Bradley's nonfiction is regularly featured by

Arts & Letters Daily Arts & Letters Daily is a web portal which links to news stories, features, and reviews from across the humanities. The site is owned by ''The Chronicle of Higher Education''. Content According to founder and former editor Denis Dutton, ''Arts & ...

, and has also appeared in

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/ liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...

McSweeney's Internet Tendency McSweeney's Publishing is an American non-profit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. Initially publishing the literary journal'' Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', the company has moved to ...

, and Ambit Magazine. He has been characterized as an "outsider" by the LA Times book blog. His sixth book, ''Fission Among the Fanatics'', was named Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2007 by 3:AM Magazine, with the citation, ''a literary giant among pygmies''.

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

commentator Andrei Codrescu called this book "the first appearance of a genre so strange we are turning away from naming it..." The publication of his seventh book, ''Lemur'', by

Raw Dog Screaming Press Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

is part of the

Bizarro fiction Bizarro fiction is a contemporary literary genre which often uses elements of absurdism, satire, and the grotesque, along with pop-surrealism and genre fiction staples, in order to create subversive, weird, and entertaining works. The term was ad ...

movement. According to '' The Advocate'', " 'Lemur''could do as much to raise the rainbow flag as two medium-size Midwestern Stonewall Day parades." Tom Bradley has meanwhile contributed to the theoretical elucidation of the Bizarro aesthetic with his criticism and his interviews. His eighth novel, ''Vital Fluid'', is based on the life, writings and performances of stage hypnotist John-Ivan Palmer and was published by Crossing Chaos Enigmatic Ink. His twentieth book, ''Family Romance'' (illustrated by Nick Patterson), is forthcoming from Debra Di Blasi's Jaded Ibis Press, described by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' magazine as a "hotpoint where the novel is undergoing radical transformation to reflect its time."

Biography

Tom Bradley was born in Utah during a time when of hydrogen bomb tests were still performed aboveground. In later life, he lived in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

for many years and lost friends in the

Tiananmen Square Massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

. The author has stated that as an unintended victim of US nuclear testing, he gravitated to Hiroshima and

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

, where he has written strident criticisms of the Japanese educational system In the opinion of Israeli journalist Barry Katz, who writes for 3:AM Magazine in Paris, Tom Bradley deliberately courts controversy: "He does seem bent on leaving absolutely nobody unpissed-off. His venom’s no less ecumenical than gratuitous."

Rain Taxi Review of Books ''Rain Taxi'' is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, ''Rain Taxi'' maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts read ...

expresses the notion as follows: "As proof of his leaving no one un-offended, he's been nudged out of every university where he has taught. For the past two decades he has lived the life of an ex-pat laugh assassin, tucked away in a volcanic mountain on the island of Kyushu". However, in composing the Critical Appendix for ''Fission Among the Fanatics'', ''The Advocate'' writer Cye Johan arrived at a different conclusion: "I tell you that Dr. Bradley has devoted his existence to writing because he intends for every center of consciousness, everywhere, in all planes and conditions (not just terrestrial female Homo sapiens in breeding prime), to love him forever, starting as soon as possible, though he's prepared to wait thousands of centuries after he's dead". He claims paternal descent from

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...

handcart pioneers who were

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

almost immediately upon arriving in Deseret, from whom he inherited his "whole hefty metabolism" and his remarkable height. 3:AM Magazine describes him as " sociopathically tall." He also claims to have descended maternally from an earlier Nagasaki expatriate,

Thomas Blake Glover Thomas Blake Glover (6 June 1838 – 16 December 1911) was a Scottish merchant in the Bakumatsu and Meiji period in Japan. Early life (1838–1858) Thomas Blake Glover was born at 15 Commerce Street, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire in northeast Sco ...

. Regarding the question of the extent to which his fictional alter-ego, Sam Edwine, is autobiographical, Tom Bradley has written that while the character is more intelligent and has had a great variety of experiences that he has not, they are essentially alike.

Interviews

''Like a Love-Sarong With No Zipper,''
at HTML Giant
''The Evil Glee,''
at 3:AM Magazine
''This Elevated Pitch,''
at Dogmatika
''Chuffed to Be Dunked in Duchamp's Pissoir,''
at

Word Riot ''Word Riot'' was an American online magazine that published poetry, flash fiction, short stories, novel excerpts, creative nonfiction, reviews, and interviews. History and profile The magazine was launched in March 2002 by author and publisher ...

''Bizarro is My God-Baby,''
at Unlikely Stories
''Neanderthals Sprinkling Their Dead With Flowers,''
at The Drill Press

Major Critical Studies of Tom Bradley's Books

''Tom Bradley Happy-Fucks Osaka''

Selected works

Nonfiction

* ''Put It Down in a Book,'' The Drill Press, 2009 * ''Fission Among the Fanatics,'' Spuyten Duyvil Books (NYC), 2007 (Both recipients of the 3:AM Magazine Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award) * ''Felicia's Nose'' (illustrated by Nick Patterson), Mad Hat Press, 2012 * ''My Hands Were Clean,'' Unlikely Books, 2010 * ''Epigonesia'' (with Kane X. Faucher), Blaze Vox Books, 2010 * ''New Cross Musings on a Manic Reality'' (editor), Dog Horn Publishing, 2011

Fiction

* ''The Church of Latter-day Eugenics'' (with

Chris Kelso Chris Kelso (born 22 March 1988, Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland) is a British Fantasy Award-nominated writer, illustrator, and anthologist from Scotland. Kelso has also been printed frequently in magazines such as Interzone, Black Static, ...

), Bizarro Pulp Press, 2017 * ''Family Romance'' (illustrated by Nick Patterson), Jaded Ibis Press, 2012 * ''A Pleasure Jaunt With One of the Sex Workers Who Don't Exist in the People's Republic of China,'' NeoPoiesis Books, 2012 * ''Bomb Baby,'' Enigmatic Ink, 2010 * ''Hemorrhaging Slave of an Obese Eunuch,'' Dog Horn Publishing, 2010 * ''Calliope's Boy,'' Black Rainbows Press, 2010 * ''Vital Fluid,'' Crossing Chaos, 2009 * ''Even the Dog Won't Touch Me,'' Ahadada Books, 2009 * ''Lemur,'' Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2008 * ''Acting Alone: a novel of nuns, neo-Nazis and NORAD,'' Browntrout Books, 1995; 2nd ed., Drill Press, 2010

References

External links

tombradley.org

* ttp://www.identitytheory.com/featauth/bradley.html Featured Author at Identity Theory Magazine
Lecture
at th

* ttp://www.corpse.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=611&Itemid=40 An Evening with Tom Bradley {{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Tom 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists Living people 1954 births American male novelists American male essayists American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American male writers