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Tommy Pico
Pico at the 2018 Texas Book Festival
Born (1983-12-13) December 13, 1983 (age 40)
Viejas Reservation, California, United States
Occupation(s)Writer, poet, and podcast host
Notable workIRL, Nature Poem

Tommy Pico (born December 13, 1983) is a Native American (Kumeyaay Nation) writer, poet, and podcast host.[1][2]

Early life

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Pico grew up on the Viejas Reservation of the Viejas Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians, a Kumeyaay tribe near San Diego. His father was a tribal chairman.[3][4] At age five, Pico started writing comics, and as a teenager he created zines and wrote poetry.[5] His name in Kumeyaay means "bird song".[6]

Pico attended Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied pre-med with the intention of returning to the reservation as a doctor. He decided not to pursue medicine and moved to New York City, where he worked as a barista in Williamsburg and started writing poetry.[3]

In 2008, Pico lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn.[5] In 2019, Pico moved to Los Angeles with a friend of his.[6]

Work

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In 2011, Pico was an inaugural mentor in the Queer/Art/Mentors programme;[2][7] in 2013 he was a Lambda Literary Fellow in Poetry.[2][8]

In 2016, Pico's first book IRL was published by the small press Birds, LLC.[9] IRL is written as one long text message, drawing on the epic tradition.[5] Pico's poem was written in first-person narration, from the perspective of Teebs. Teebs is a fictional character writing about fictional events, however, the character parallels as Pico's alter-ego and is used as a nickname.[10] IRL received critical acclaim and was included on best-of-the-year lists for 2016.[11][12] In 2017, it received the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize.[13]

Pico's second book, Nature Poem was published in 2017 by Tin House. Nature Poem, like IRL, was written from the perspective of Pico's alter ego and fictional character, Teebs.[14] Pico again used the epic format, in this case to explore and challenge stereotypes of Native Americans as "noble savages" who are one with nature.[15] Nature Poem also received critical acclaim.[16][17][18] Pico followed Nature Poem with Junk in 2018 and Feed in 2019. Pico considers his four books as a series called the "Teebs tetralogy".[19][20]

Pico co-curates the live reading series Poets With Attitude with Morgan Parker,[21] and he is the co-host of the podcast Food 4 Thot, a podcast about queer identity, race, sex, relationships, literature, and pop culture. He is also the co-host of the podcast Scream, Queen! with Drea Washington. Scream, Queen discusses marginalized people and horror films.[20][22] He also appears in the 2022 documentary series Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror.[23]

In 2018, Pico was commissioned to create soundscapes for New York City's High Line park and a walking tour of Seattle for Vignettes Gallery and Gramma Press.[20]

He has written for TV shows including Reservation Dogs and Resident Alien.[24] Pico was chosen as a 2021 Sundance Institute Fellow.[24][25]

Awards

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In 2017, Pico's debut IRL received the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize.[13] his second book, Nature Poem, was the winner of a 2018 American Book Award and finalist for the 2018 Lambda Literary Award. He was a 2018 Whiting Award Winner for poetry.[2]

Bibliography

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  • IRL (2016, Birds, LLC: ISBN 9780991429868)[26]
  • Nature Poem (2017, Tin House: ISBN 9781941040638)[27]
  • Junk (2018, Tin House: ISBN 9781941040973)[28]
  • Feed (2019, Tin House: ISBN 978-1-947793-57-6)[29]

References

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  1. ^ Kenny, Tara (March 27, 2018). "Meet Tommy Pico, the Native American, Beyoncé-loving poet". Interview. Retrieved April 12, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d "Tommy Pico: 2018 Winner in Poetry".
  3. ^ a b Moskowitz, Peter (September 9, 2016). "The Anger and Joy of a Native-American Poet in Brooklyn". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  4. ^ "Tommy Pico". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c Street, Mikelle (February 14, 2018). "All Media All Star". The New York Times. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  6. ^ a b Brunton, Ruby (May 23, 2019). "On not wasting any time". The Creative Independent. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  7. ^ "Mentorship". Queer/Art/Mentors. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  8. ^ "Fellows: Tommy Pico". Lambda Literary. June 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  9. ^ Knapp, Michaelsun Stonesweat (October 15, 2016). "The Saturday Rumpus Interview with Tommy Pico". The Rumpus. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  10. ^ Hanman-Siegersma, Frankie (February 1, 2017). "'I lift the house / of language, allow doubt / to whoosh in': A Conversation with Tommy 'Teebs' Pico". Cordite Poetry Review. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  11. ^ "Best of 2016: Best Poetry Books & Collections". Entropy. November 30, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  12. ^ "Literary Hub's Best Books of 2016: Our 35 Favorite Books of the Year". Literary Hub. December 20, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  13. ^ a b "The Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize". Brooklyn Public Library. March 20, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  14. ^ Osmundson, Joseph. "'Not Waiting for Inspiration': An Interview with Tommy Pico". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  15. ^ "Tommy Pico's New Book Confronts American Indian Stereotypes". Nylon. May 9, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  16. ^ "PW Picks: Books of the Week, May 8, 2017". Publishers Weekly. May 5, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  17. ^ "Destruction and Deconstruction in Tommy Pico's Nature Poem". Los Angeles Review of Books. May 9, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  18. ^ Cornum, Lou (May 11, 2017). "Brooklyn is a Broken Land: on Tommy Pico's Nature Poem". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  19. ^ Burt, Stephanie (November 27, 2019). "Tommy Pico's Feed: A Book-Length Meditation on Modern Appetites". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  20. ^ a b c Vinson, Arriel (November 5, 2019). "Poetry Can Give You What You're Hungry For". Electric Literature. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  21. ^ "The Archive Project - Dawn Lundy Martin, Morgan Parker, Danez Smith". KUOW. February 14, 2018. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  22. ^ "Food 4 Thot". Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  23. ^ "Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror". Radio Times. September 14, 2022. Archived from the original on October 16, 2022. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  24. ^ a b "Sundance Institute Names 20 Fellows Across Feature Film Directors and Screenwriters Labs, Native Lab". Sundance Institute. May 10, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  25. ^ Saperstein, Pat (May 10, 2021). "Sundance Institute Names Fellows for Directors, Screenwriters, Native Labs". Variety. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  26. ^ Pico, Tommy (2016). IRL. Birds, LLC. ISBN 9780991429868. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  27. ^ Pico, Tommy (2017). Nature Poem. Tin House. ISBN 9781941040638.
  28. ^ Pico, Tommy (2018). Junk. Tin House. ISBN 9781941040973.
  29. ^ Pico, Tommy (2019). Feed. Tin House. ISBN 9781947793576.
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