Tommy Pico

Pico grew up on the Viejas Reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, near San Diego. His father was a reservation chairman.[2][3] Pico started writing comics at age 5, and as a teenager created zines and wrote poetry.[4] His name in Kumeyaay means "bird song".[5]

He attended Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied pre-med with the intention of returning to the reservation as a doctor. He decided not to pursue medicine and moved to New York City, where he worked as a barista in Williamsburg and started writing poetry.[2]

In 2008, Pico lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn.[4] In 2019, Pico moved to Los Angeles with a friend of his.[5]

In 2016, Pico's first book IRL was published by the small press Birds, LLC.[6] IRL is written as one long text message, drawing on the epic tradition.[4] Pico's poem was written in first-person narration, from the perspective of Teebs. Teebs is a fictional character writing about fictional events, however, the character parallels as Pico's alter-ego and is used as a nickname.[7] IRL received critical acclaim and was included on best-of-the-year lists for 2016.[8][9] In 2017, it received the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize.[10]

Pico's second book, Nature Poem was published in 2017 by Tin House. Nature Poem, like IRL, was written from the perspective of Pico's alter ego and fictional character, Teebs.[11] Pico again used the epic format, in this case to explore and challenge stereotypes of Native Americans as "noble savages" who are one with nature.[12] Nature Poem also received critical acclaim.[13][14][15] Pico followed Nature Poem with Junk in 2018 and Feed in 2019. Pico considers his four books as a series called the "Teebs tetralogy".[16][17]

Pico co-curates the live reading series Poets With Attitude with Morgan Parker,[18] and he is the co-host of the podcast Food 4 Thot, a podcast about queer identity, race, sex, relationships, literature, and pop culture. He is also the co-host of the podcast Scream, Queen! with Drea Washington. Scream, Queen discusses marginalized people and horror films.[19][17]

In 2018, Pico was commissioned to create soundscapes for New York City's High Line park and a walking tour of Seattle for Vignettes Gallery and Gramma Press.[17]

He has written for TV shows including Reservation Dogs and Resident Alien.[20][21] Pico was chosen as a 2021 Sundance Institute Fellow.[22]

Pico's second book, Nature Poem, was the winner of a 2018 American Book Award and finalist for the 2018 Lambda Literary Award. He was a 2018 Whiting Award Winner for poetry.

• IRL (2016, Birds, LLC: ISBN 9780991429868)[23]
• Nature Poem (2017, Tin House: ISBN 9781941040638)[24]
• Junk (2018, Tin House: ISBN 9781941040973)[25]
• Feed (2019, Tin House: ISBN 978-1-947793-57-6)[26]

• Official website
• FEED: A Garden Soundscape
• VIGNETTES + GRAMMA PRESENT ‘A LONE’