Tom Sydow

Department: Liberal Arts Division
Title: Assistant Professor
Phone #: 304-788-6996
E-mail Address: tom.sydow@mail.wvu.edu

Education:
Bachelor of Arts Degree in English – California State University, Long Beach
Masters in Fine Arts in Writing – California State University, Long Beach

Courses Taught:
ENGL 101/102:
Composition and Rhetoric
English 102 Honors
ENGL 111: Introduction to Creative Writing
ENGL 233: The Short Story
ENGL 241/242: American Literature
ENGL 258: Popular American Culture
HUM 101: Western Civilization
HUM 104: Honors Seminar in Humanities
Honors 199: Orientation to Honors
HORT 293J: Small Scale Grapes and Grains
PE 293S: Introduction to Fly Fishing

University Service:
English Co-Coordinator
Advisor to Outdoor Club
Advisor to Creative Writing Club
Faculty Secretary
Advisor for Elementary Education
Catamount Success Academy Mentor
Chair – Student Conduct Board
Division Social Organizer/Host
Serve on various committees

Publications: Works have appeared in Catalyst, Riprap, City Dialogues, DisOrient, Mosaic, and Connotation Press

Research Interests: Fictional Memoir, Flash Fiction, the hypothetical progeny of Carver and Bukowski,; advanced applications of Saccharomyces and Humulus Lupulus; entomology of the Savage River Watershed; The Abnormal Psychology of sibling rivalry

Conference Proceedings/Presentation: WVACET 2012/2013 – Fiction Presentations

Book Chapters: Lots of chapters completed (Argentina/Tsitsiqua/Scarecrow), but not the whole book. Yet.

Faculty Collaborators at Other Colleges/Universities: City Dialogues – a collaborative arts organization featuring faculty from various California Colleges and Universities; ILCEP collaboration with PSC colleague Linda Bane

Grants: Arts Grant – City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs; WVU Libraries Information Literacy Grants

Fun Facts About Yourself : I’m a Leo, but I don’t really act like it; I lived in Buenos Aires Argentina until the second grade; I was a terrible student until I returned to college to finish my degree at thirty years old; I designed and built custom acrylic guitars for poodle-headed rock stars in the mid-1980s; though I’m deathly afraid of heights, I’ve climbed Half Dome in Yosemite twice; I like to build things: houses, furniture, guitars, kayaks, fly rods, ales, stories. I spend my summers crawling up local creeks in search of brook trout; though I lived on the Southern California coast for 20+ years, I have never surfed. Dude.