T. M. Douglas was born in San Jose, California, and graduated in the spring of 2003 Magna Cum Laude from Hayward State University with a major in English. In July she moved to NY to attend graduate school at Sarah Lawrence College.

Carolyn McGrath asked her who the influences upon her had been, and she says:

The teacher that influenced my writing the most was my freshman English teacher in high school. He didn’t teach me how to write, he taught me to think of myself as a writer, which was far more important at that stage. Every fledgling writer needs someone to take her seriously.

At the beginning of my writing career the author that influenced me the most was Edgar Allan Poe. I wanted to write stories as good as his while NOT being on drugs. Now, I would say it’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I am excited by the way he mixes the absurd with the tragic without ruining either.
Douglas’s goals, she says, are to portray multicultural, multiracial families in a way I have not yet seen done. Specifically, I want to portray a certain kind of Hispanic family, where everybody is thoroughly American, but undeniably Mexican.

Currently I am working on a story tentatively titled ‘The White Guy’ where a Mexican girl brings home her white boyfriend. I don’t have a whole lot of detail yet, but it’s about prejudice—not the boyfriend’s nor the Mexican family’s, but hers.

Douglas has other goals unconnected to writing: to get to Europe….live in Spain…and be editor for a publishing house. We feel quite confident that she’ll succeed.