Tom Lin

I am a writer and scholar based in Iowa City, Iowa, where I am an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Iowa.

My debut novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, won the 2022 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and is now available in paperback from Little, Brown and Company. My new novel, Babylon, South Dakota, will be published by Little, Brown and Company in summer of 2026.

My scholarly research investigates the role of science fiction and popular culture in the shaping of large technical systems, using a hybrid approach that draws from the intersection of the history of technology and literary studies. I am particularly interested in nuclear weapons, space and aviation technologies, human-machine interfaces, and limit cases of interpretation, knowability, and cognition.

I am represented by Lisa Queen of Queen Literary Agency and Mary Pender of WME.