Tom McCarthy

Tom McCarthy is a notable writer and artist, who was born in London in 1969 and raised in South London’s Greenwich. He studied English at Oxford’s New College, and his upbringing as the eighth of nine children in Omaha instilled in him a lifelong fascination with language and mystery. This fascination was further cultivated during his time at Jesuit high school and university, as well as during his two years living in a Jesuit community while earning his Master’s degree in English at Oxford.

McCarthy is perhaps best known for his debut novel, Remainder, which was first published in 2005 by Paris-based art press Metronome and has since been translated into several languages. His work has been described as “literary criticism” and has been praised by critics for its originality and depth. In addition to his novels, McCarthy has published numerous stories, essays, and articles on literature, philosophy, and art in various publications and anthologies.

In addition to his work as a writer, McCarthy is also an accomplished artist and the co-founder of the International Necronautical Society (INS), a semi-fictitious avant-garde network that has been described as a “total art work” and a “platform for fantastically mobile thinking.” The INS has gained notoriety for its provocative actions, such as breaking into the BBC website and inserting propaganda into its source-code, and setting up a broadcasting unit at the ICA to transmit poem-codes over FM radio and the internet.

McCarthy has also had a successful career in academia, teaching at various institutions including the Architectural Association, Central Saint Martins School of Art, the Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths College, and the University of Minnesota. He has written a monthly column in America magazine on the interplay between intellectual and spiritual life and has published several books, including From This Clay: Gifts, Surprises and Questions from the Spiritual Quest and Relationships of Sympathy: The Writer and the Reader in British Romanticism.