ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Piazza is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Williams College, and the author of eight books, including the Faulkner Society Award-winning novel My Cold War, which was named a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year, and the short-story collection Blues And Trouble, which won the James Michener Award for fiction. Of Piazza's fiction, Bob Dylan wrote, "Tom Piazza's writing pulsates with nervous electrical tension - reveals the emotions that we can't define."

Also well known as a music writer, Piazza won a 2004 Grammy Award for his album notes to Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey, and he is a three-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Music Writing, most recently in 2006 for his book Understanding Jazz. His 1999 book True Adventures With The King of Bluegrass, a portrait of bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin, was a finalist for the Ralph J. Gleason Award. He has been a regular contributor to the Sunday New York Times, The Oxford American, and many other publications.

His most recent book is Why New Orleans Matters, written immediately after Hurricane Katrina and published in November 2005. It received the 2006 Humanities Book of the Year Award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. He lives in New Orleans.

By clicking on the word “Books” above or below you can read about all of Tom's books, as well as finding links to order them at Amazon.com. “News” will provide you with updates on Tom’s activities, including new books, awards, and public appearances. By clicking on “Other Publications,” you can find out where else Tom is publishing - magazines, anthologies, CD notes. “By & About” provides links to articles and reviews by and about Tom elsewhere on the internet. And by clicking on “Author's Notes” you will find personal notes from Tom himself, updated regularly, about books and music, or anything else, that he has been finding interesting. You may contact Tom, or his agent, Amy Williams, by clicking "Contact." If you want to receive news about Tom's new books or other publications as they come out, join the Mailing List by filling in the form below, and we'll take care of the rest.