O Thiam Chin

O Thiam Chin (born 8 December 1977) is a Singaporean author. Many of his stories explore themes of love, heartbreak, alienation and gay male sexuality.

Biography O was born into a family of Mandarin-speaking hawkers. He studied at Ang Mo Kio Secondary School, and later pursued a diploma in mechatronics at Temasek Polytechnic. In 2000, he took up a part-time course in English language and literature at the Singapore Institute of Management.

He also began writing for magazines and online media, even writing and directing a short film. He became a full-time writer in 2005, and self-published his first collection, Free-Falling Man, in 2006. He has been featured three times on the longlist of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award: in 2010 for Never Been Better, in 2012 for The Rest of Your Life and Everything That Comes with It, and in 2014 for Love, or Something like Love, which was also shortlisted for the 2014 Singapore Literature Prize. His stories and writings have also been featured in numerous journals, such as Granta, The Cincinnati Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Asia Literary Review, Kyoto Journal, The Jakarta Post, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Karavan, and Asia Writes. His second novel, Fox Fire Girl, looks at a mysterious young woman and the self-destructive men who love her. It was shortlisted for the same award in 2016, and is currently being adapted into a feature film.

In 2023, he was one of three winners of the RisingStories Story Pitching Competition, for his script treatment for Boy and The Beast. He is part of the judging panel (Asian region) for the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Competition.

O is an avid marathon runner.

Short story collections Free-Falling Man (2006) Never Been Better (2009) Under The Sun (2010, MPH Group Publishing) The Rest Of Your Life and Everything That Comes With It (2011, ZI Publications) Love, Or Something Like Love (2013, Math Paper Press) Signs Of Life (2019, Math Paper Press)

Novels Now That It's Over (2016, Epigram Books) Fox Fire Girl (2017, Epigram Books) The Dogs (2020, Penguin Random House SEA) We Are Not Alone Here (2022, Penguin Random House SEA) ISBN 9789815058062

Awards Young Artist Award (Literary Arts), 2012 Epigram Books Fiction Prize, 2015