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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.
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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.
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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”). |
| • 1998: The 1998 Commonwealth
Writers’ Prize for Asia and the South Pacific for Best First
Novel (for Deadset). |
| • 1998: Named as one of
Australia’s Best Young Writers at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. |
| • 1997: The Henry Lawson Award
for Journalism (for a story on DIY funerals - click
HERE to read). |
| • 1997: Two inclusions in the
1997 Carlton and United book of Best Australian Sports Writing
and Photography. |
| • 1997: Named as one of
Australia’s Best Young Writers at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. |
| • 1992: Cadet of the year, APN
editorial competition. |
| • 1990: Sir Harry Budd Memorial
Award for NSW Country Journalism. |
• 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 finish a Masters in
Media Practice 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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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.
