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A Front Row Seat
to Life,  Barbara
Pinto ’86, ABC News

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"Writing well can be taught. I'm living proof..."

The short stories of Tom Noyes '92 draw rave reviews; he credits a well-rounded education.

     At an early age, Tom Noyes felt the satisfaction of writing well, when the crowd applauded at the production of the play he had written for his third-grade class, "The True Meaning of Christmas." His parents instilled in him a love of  books and he was encouraged to pursue the life of the mind through writing.

     At Houghton, Noyes studied English literature and education, then writing—his creative writing classes thoroughly engaged him. Editing the student literary magazine, Lanthorn, and interacting with other student

writers over informal lunches and coffeehouses helped reveal new chapters in his writing life. By graduation, he had been chosen as the department's outstanding senior writing major and had published several short stories.

After graduating, Noyes accepted a position as technical editor and writer, but after a year on the job claimed, "Editing computer manuals chased me into graduate school fast!" So he earned a master's of fine arts in creative writing from Wichita State University, and recognition as the university's most outstanding master's degree candidate along the way.

     Noyes' short stories have made won awards in such competitions as the Breadloaf/Bakeless, the Sandstone, the Pushcart, and the Associated Writing Program Awards Series in Short Fiction.

     "Writing is not work to me." Noyes says, "Writing is  my vocation. I first began to learn about and understand this concept from Professors Leax and Zoller. Without my teachers, from third grade right up through college, I wouldn't be a writer. Writing well

can be taught, I'm living proof of that."