T. C. Boyle

He was previously a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

Boyle studied at State University of New York at Potsdam, University of Iowa and State University of New York. The recorded working language is American English and English. Places of work recorded in the authority are Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Employment is recorded with University of Southern California. Works named in the authority record are The Tortilla Curtain and Water Music.

• Name — T. C. Boyle • Birth Name — Thomas John Boyle, Jr. • Born — 2 December 1948 • Birthplace — Peekskill, New York, U.S. • Occupation — Writer • Period — 1975–present • Genre — Novels, comic novels • Awards — PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, 1988 • Website — tcboyle.com • Education — State University of New York at Potsdam (BA) University of Iowa Writers' Workshop (MFA) University of Iowa (PhD)

T. C. Boyle was born Thomas John Boyle, the son of Thomas John Boyle, a school bus driver, and his wife Rosemary Post Boyle (later Rosemary Murphy), a school secretary. He grew up in Peekskill, New York and changed his middle name to Coraghessan when he was 17 after an ancestor of his mother. He received a B.A. in English and History from the State University of New York at Potsdam (1968), an M.F.A. (1974) from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and a Ph.D. (1977) from the University of Iowa.

In Understanding T. C. Boyle, Paul William Gleason writes, "Boyle's stories and novels take the best elements of Carver's minimalism, Barth's postmodern extravaganzas, García Márquez's magical realism, O'Connor's dark comedy and moral seriousness, and Dickens' entertaining and strange plots and brings them to bear on American life in an accessible, subversive, and inventive way." Many of Boyle's novels and short stories explore the baby boom generation, its appetites, joys, and addictions. His themes, such as the often-misguided efforts of the male hero and the slick appeal of the anti-hero, appear alongside brutal satire, humor, and magical realism. His fiction also explores the ruthlessness and the unpredictability of nature and the toll human society unwittingly takes on the environment. Boyle has published eleven collections of short stories, including Descent of Man (1979), Greasy Lake (1985), If the River Was Whiskey (1989), and Without a Hero (1994). His short stories frequently appear in the major American magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly and Playboy, as well as on the radio show Selected Shorts.

Boyle is married to Karen Kvashay. They have three children and live in Montecito near Santa Barbara, California. Their home was imperiled in the 2017 Thomas Fire which consumed 440 square miles and over 1,000 structures in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, killing a firefighter in the latter. The fires denuded drought-stricken hillsides of vegetation and torrential rains in January 2018 subsequently dislodged immense boulders and precipitated mudslides which destroyed over one hundred homes and killed almost two dozen of his neighbors. Over 10,000 people were evacuated from Montecito as a result of the sequence of natural disasters. Boyle extensively documented both calamities on his website, and additionally in an article for The New Yorker.

• Water Music (1981) • Budding Prospects: A Pastoral (1984) • World's End (1987) • East Is East (1990) • The Road to Wellville (1993) • The Tortilla Curtain (1995) • Riven Rock (1998) • A Friend of the Earth (2000) • Drop City (2003) • The Inner Circle (2004) • Talk Talk (2006) • The Women (2009) • When the Killing's Done (2011) • San Miguel (2012) • The Harder They Come (2015) • The Terranauts (2016) • Outside Looking In (2019) • Talk to Me (2021) • Blue Skies (2023) • No Way Home (2026)

The following list is a selection of the many short stories Boyle has written: • Title — |Year — |First published — |Reprinted/collected — |Notes • "My Pain Is Worse Than Your Pain" — 2010 — "A Death in Kitchawank" (2013) • "The Night of the Satellite" — 2013 — "A Death in Kitchawank" (2013) • "Sic Transit" — 2013 — "A Death in Kitchawank" (2013) • "The Relive Box" — 2014 — The Relive Box & Other Stories (2017) • "Are We Not Men?" — 2016 — The Relive Box & Other Stories (2017) • "Asleep at the Wheel" — 2019 — I Walk Between the Raindrops (2022) • "The Pool" — 2025 — Boyle, T. Coraghessan (September 22, 2025). "The Pool". The New Yorker

• DoubleTakes (2004, co-edited with K. Kvashay-Boyle)

• Title — Time — Setting — Historical personage in the novel • World's End (1987) — Late 17th century, 1949 and 1968 — Northern Westchester County near Peekskill, New York • Water Music (1982) — 1795 — London, Scotland, and Africa (source of the Niger) — Mungo Park • The Road to Wellville (1993) — 1907 — Battle Creek, Michigan — John Harvey Kellogg • Riven Rock (1998) — 1905–1925 — Montecito, Santa Barbara County, California — Stanley McCormick, Katharine McCormick • The Women (2009) — Early 20th century up to 1930s — Wisconsin, Chicago, Japan — Frank Lloyd Wright • The Inner Circle (2004) — 1940s–50s — Bloomington, Indiana — Alfred Kinsey • Drop City (2003) — 1970 — California, Alaska • Budding Prospects (1984) — 1980s — California • East Is East (1990) — 1980s — Georgia (American South) — Hu Tu Mei • The Tortilla Curtain (1995) — 1990s — Southern California • Talk Talk (2006) — 2000s — California and New York state • When the Killing's Done (2011) — 2000s, 1970s, 1940s — California (Channel Islands) • A Friend of the Earth (2000) — late 1980s; 2025–2026 — California, Oregon • The Harder They Come (2015) — 2011 — Mendocino County, California, including Fort Bragg and Willits

Boyle's novel The Road to Wellville was adapted into a film in 1994, by writer-director Alan Parker. It starred Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda, John Cusack, Dana Carvey, and Colm Meaney. The film was not well received either critically or financially, and was considered a box-office flop and appeared on several critics' worst-of-the-year lists.

The authorities additionally record the headings T. Boyle, Thomas James Boyle, Thomas Coraghessan Boyle and Tom Coraghessan Boyle. His recorded languages were American English and English.