Tom Healy is a writer and activist. He grew up on his family’s small dairy farm in Mount Vision in upstate New York. He earned his philosophy BA at Harvard and an MFA in creative writing at Columbia. He is the curator of public programs at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, where he hosts a public conversation series on creativity. He is also the chair of O, Miami Poetry Festival.
Healy is the author of three books of poetry: Velvet, Animal Spirits, and What the Right Hand Knows, which was a finalist for the 2009 L.A. Times Book Prize and the Lambda Literary Award. His poems have appeared in journals and anthologies including The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, Salmagundi, Boston Review, Drunken Boat, BOMB Magazine, and many others.
From 2011 through 2014, Healy served as Chairman of the Fulbright Scholarship Board, which oversees the worldwide Fulbright Scholar program. Appointed by President Barack Obama, Healy traveled to six continents to promote peace and understanding through the exchange of ideas and culture. In 2014, the Fulbright program won Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation. Healy remains on the executive committee of the Fulbright Board. He served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS under President Bill Clinton and remains active in global efforts to fight poverty and AIDS. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Healy has had a distinguished career in the arts, including a pioneering gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea arts district that helped launch artists such as Tom Sachs, Kara Walker, and Karen Finley. As executive director of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, he had a leadership role in rebuilding New York’s downtown arts community after 9/11, for which he received the 2005 New York City Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture from Michael Bloomberg. He serves on the board of PEN America, The Bass, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Healy has taught on the faculties of NYU, The Pratt Institute, and The New School. He has been a lecturer or writer-in-residence at universities and institutes in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Indonesia, and Senegal.
Healy and his partner Fred Hochberg live in Miami and New York City.
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More Tom Healy
Audio/Text: Listen to Healy's poem "Mirror, Mirror" on The Slowdown
Text: Read poems by Healy at the Academy of American Poets
Video: Healy gives a reading and workshop on poetry and tattoos at Pitzer College
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Photo by Thomas Brunot.