Tomas Alexander Asuncion Tizon (October 30, 1959 – March 23, 2017) was a Filipino-American author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist."The 1997 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Investigative Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. 1997. Accessed May 12, 2014. His book Big Little Man, a memoir and cultural history, explores themes related to race, masculinity, and personal identity."Big Little Man: In Search of my Asian Self". Publishers Weekly. Reviewed on March 10, 2014. Accessed May 12, 2014. Tizon taught at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. His final story, titled "My Family's Slave", was published as the cover story of the June 2017 issue of The Atlantic after his death, sparking significant debate.

Early life Tizon was born Tomas Alexander Asuncion Tizon in Manila, Philippines on October 30, 1959, the second of five children. He immigrated with his family in 1964, shortly before the first big wave of Asian immigration to the United States in the postwar era. His childhood was marked by financial hardship and frequent long-distance moves. Through twelve grades, he attended eight schools from Honolulu to New York City. He earned degrees from the University of Oregon and Stanford University.

Career As a reporter for The Seattle Times, he and two colleagues won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for a five-part series about fraud and mismanagement in the Federal Indian Housing Program.Chuck Taylor. "Times Wins Two Pulitzer Prizes -- Boeing, Tribal Housing Stories Earn Awards" The Seattle Times. April 7, 1997. Accessed May 12, 2014.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Tizon and photographer Alan Berner drove from Seattle to Ground Zero in New York City, chronicling their journey with a multi-part series called "Crossing America – Dispatches From a New Nation," which explored the changes brought about by the attacks.Chip Scanlan. "The Power of Serendipity: Alex Tizon’s Journey" Poynter. Published July 31, 2002, Updated March 2, 2011. Accessed May 18, 2014. In 2002, he and Berner made another trip to Ground Zero, this time taking a southern route, and produced the series, "Crossing America – One Year Later."Alex Tizon. "Crossing America: One Year Later" the Seattle Times August 25 – September 15, 2002. Accessed May 18, 2014.

Tizon was Seattle Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times from 2003 to 2008. He was a Knight International Journalism Fellow based in Manila in 2009 and 2010."Alex Tizon: Knight International Journalism Fellow, Philippines" ICFJ 30 Years, International Center for Journalists Advancing Quality Journalism Worldwide. 2013. Accessed May 17, 2014.

Towards the end of his life, he wrote a piece in The Atlantic about Eudocia Tomas Pulido, a Filipina peasant woman and distant relative who was his family's lifelong indentured servant, and as he argued, in effect their slave. Pulido helped to raise Tizon's mother and all of her children and Tizon's daughters without compensation for decades, until Tizon took her in after his mother's death. The story was the last Tizon would write before he died.

Big Little Man He expanded upon his journalistic themes—exiles, immigrants, social outcasts, people searching for identity or purpose—in a personal way in his book Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self. Tizon told his own story as a first-generation immigrant and an Asian male growing up in the United States to examine cultural mythologies related to race and gender, in particular the Western stereotypes of Asian men and women. The book won the 2011 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize Work-In-Progress Award, sponsored by Columbia University and the Nieman Foundation at Harvard.Arlene Morgan and Clare Oh. "Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard Announce Winners of the 2011 Lukas Prize Project Awards for Exceptional Works of Nonfiction" Columbia Journalism School. Page 2. Accessed May 17, 2014.

Personal life Tizon was married twice. He had a daughter, Dylan, from his first marriage. He later married Melissa Tizon. The couple had a daughter, Maya.

Tizon was found dead in his home in Eugene, Oregon, on March 23, 2017. A medical examiner later found that Tizon had died in his sleep of natural causes. The same day, The Atlantics editorial staff decided the article would be featured on the magazine's front cover, but Tizon died before they could tell him of their decision."Alex Tizon's posthumous Atlantic cover story is about his family's secret slave", by Eder Campuzano, at The Oregonian; published May 16, 2017; retrieved May 16, 2017

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