Thomas Sancton grew up in New Orleans and attended local public schools. After studies at Harvard and Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, he began a 22-year career as a writer, editor, and foreign correspondent for Time Magazine, serving most recently as Paris Bureau Chief, where his reporting earned him an Overseas Press Club Award. While living in Paris, he authored the international bestseller Death of a Princess: The Investigation and a political thriller, The Armageddon Project, set against the backdrop of the war in Iraq. His forthcoming novel, Off the Cliff, is a historical work set in Normandy under the Nazi occupation. 2007, Sancton was named the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Tulane University, where he has taught advanced classes in creative writing. Sancton is also a well-known jazz clarinetist and a former student of the late, great George Lewis—an apprenticeship he lovingly chronicled in Song for My Fathers.
Featured on more than a dozen CD’s, Tom Sancton (a.k.a. Tommy) has toured widely in Europe and the U.S., and has played at major international jazz festivals, including numerous appearances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He also appeared alongside Woody Allen in the 1998 film Wild Man Blues. Since his return to New Orleans in 2007, Sancton has played regularly at such legendary jazz venues as Preservation Hall, the Palm Court Jazz Cafe, and Snug Harbor. A stage version of Song For My Fathers, featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, was presented at Tulane University’s Dixon Hall in 2010, the Chat Noir theater in 2011, and the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in 2012. In January 2012, Sancton was featured at a gala 50th anniversary Preservation Hall Jazz Band concert at Carnegie Hall. In 2014, the French government named him a Chevalier (Knight) in the Order of Arts and Letters.