| The
Northern Star |
| After a spectacularly fidgety stint
as a life drawing model, Emma Tom got a cadetship
on The Northern Star newspaper in Lismore despite
wearing unforgivably large earrings and forgetting
the name of Australia’s foreign minister during
the interview. Her first big break in journalism
occurred when a triple murderer wrote from jail
saying he liked her work. He thought the piece she’d
written on his recapture after a jail break was
particularly commendable. |
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| "Good luck with your career,”
were the last words this triple murderer said to
Emma Tom during their final interview in a maximum-security
prison cell. “And don’t do anything
I wouldn’t do.” |
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| She thought this left the field fairly
open. |
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| Apart from this, Emma Tom’s
main job at the paper was inserting the dollar signs
in fruit and vegetable reports. This was a serious
business. One time she left out the kiwi fruit and
there was a riot. |
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| The
Sydney Morning Herald |
| After a while, Emma Tom moved to
the city and spent eight years at The Sydney Morning
Herald where - among other things - she conducted
a nude interview with American porn star Annie Sprinkle,
became a cheerleader for a month and entered the
Moscow Circus’s infamous Globe of Death on
a dare. The last journalist who’d tried this
stunt lost complete control. And we’re talking
plumbing, here. |
|
| The
Australian |
| Emma Tom now works for The Australian.
Some of her more dangerous assignments with News
Ltd have included attending superbike school (some
actual sparks came off her motorbike’s foot
peg), entering a women’s-only demolition derby
(she was knocked unconscious) and taking jelly wrestling
lessons (she sucked). She has also toured Australia
with the Queen and covered judo and wrestling during
the 2000 Olympics. |
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| You can find her column on Wednesdays
on The Australian’s feature page. |
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| Freelance |
| Emma Tom has written for The Guardian
(UK), SZ-Magazin (Germany), Cosmopolitan, Cleo,
Penthouse, The Sun Herald, The Daily Telegraph,
Australian Author, Australian Traveller, Woman’s
Day, Marie Claire, Australian Women’s Forum,
Lesbians on the Loose and Ms Rider (a magazine for
female motorcyclists). She also appeared briefly
as a sex advice columnist in a men’s magazine
called Max. |
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| Fiction |
| In addition to the four books mentioned
in the BOOKS section of
this web site, Emma Tom’s fiction has appeared
in a number of anthologies including Dick For A
Day, Smashed, Screwed, My One True Love, Dumped
and the third War Child anthology called Big Night
Out. |
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| TV
and Radio |
| Emma Tom has done quite a bit of
TV and radio. In 1999, for instance, she appeared
as a reporter and presenter with John Safran and
Richard Stubbs on Channel Seven’s The
Late Report where she discovered, to her horror,
that live television presenting required wearing
leg makeup. Other TV shows she’s appeared
on include TV1’s Top Ten Summer Countdown,
20 to 1, Sunrise, Mornings
with Kerri-Anne, Today Tonight, The
Sunday Show, Good News Week, Good
Morning Australia, The Morning Shift,
The 10.30 Slot, The Graveyard Shift,
The Joint, The Big Schmooze,
Campaign, The Midday Show, Day
Break, The Book Show, Chaos and
Australia Between The Sheets with Gretel Killeen. |
|
| Odd
Jobs |
| On top of all this stuff, Emma Tom
has worked as a babysitter, waitress, barmaid, dating
agency pamphlet hander-outerer, hearse driver and
ghost and history tour guide (she has an actual
bus licence). She has also made cameos appearances
in the films Garage Days and Idiot
Box, as well as on Australia’s Most
Wanted . |
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| Awards |
| • 2003: Acknowledgement
in The People with Disabilities (WA) Inc Media Awards
for a “thought provoking and challenging article”
on sex and the disabled (click HERE
to read). |
 |
| • 2001: The
Women’s Electoral Lobby Edna Ryan Humour Award
(awarded for “using wit to promote women’s
interests”). |
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| • 1998: The
1998 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Asia
and the South Pacific for Best First Novel (for
Deadset). |
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| • 1998: Named
as one of Australia’s Best Young Writers at
the Sydney Writers’ Festival. |
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| • 1997: The
Henry Lawson Award for Journalism (for a story on
DIY funerals - click HERE
to read). |
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| • 1997: Two
inclusions in the 1997 Carlton and United book of
Best Australian Sports Writing and Photography. |
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| • 1997: Named
as one of Australia’s Best Young Writers at
the Sydney Writers’ Festival. |
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| • 1992: Cadet
of the year, APN editorial competition. |
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| • 1990: Sir
Harry Budd Memorial Award for NSW Country Journalism. |
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| • 1989: PF
Adams’ Memorial Cadet Award, Prodi Awards. |
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| Personal |
| Emma Tom lives in Sydney and works
from a home office containing a large number of
thesauruses and at least two dogs. Her favourite
human body part is the fringe followed closely by
the tricep. In her spare time, she eats from dodgy
Sydney curry houses and re-watches old Buffy the
Vampire Slayer DVDs. Somehow she is also finding
time to study at the University of Sydney. |
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| Emma Tom is a big fan of homosexual
penguins, the surreal subject lines of spam e-mails
and cattle dogs that look like they’re wearing
eyeliner. She also digs Manglish on foreign menus.
Her favourite is from a restaurant in Moscow called
Arizona where all the staff dress as cowgirls and
cowboys. The menu here reads: |
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| “America to be absolutely close
all only distance of a fork! We hope that you appreciate
our kitchen and it will subdue you by the iriginality,
abundance meat delicos and specials chef.” |
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Top |
The organisers of a writing function in East Asia
once asked Emma Tom to e-mail over her biography.
When she obliged, they e-mailed back saying “ha
ha very funny now please send us your REAL biography”.
With hindsight, she thinks this was a reasonable
response.
