Thomas Coraghessan Boyle is an American novelist and short story writer. His name was originally Thomas John Boyle; he changed his middle name to Coraghessan when he was 17. He received a B.A. in English and History from the State University of New York at Potsdam (1968), an M.F.A. (1974) from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and a Ph.D. (1977) from the University of Iowa.
Since the mid-1970s, Boyle has published fourteen novels and more than 100 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988, for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.
Boyle lives with his wife Karen Kvashay and their three children near Santa Barbara, California.
