Tom Petsinis graduated from the University of Melbourne and has worked with the Victorian Ministry of Education. He completed his PhD at Victoria University. The award of a Writer's Fellowship from the Literature Board of the Australia Council in 1991 assisted him in completing a novel, a play and a collection of poems. He has lectured in Mathematics at Victoria University, and Creative Writing at Monash University. As well as his own writing, he has translated works from Greek into English, including Ohrid : Cultural-Historical and Natural Region in the Catalogue of World's Heritage (Kosta Balabanov, 1987) and Industrial Voices : Writing from the 1991 Greek Speakers' Workshops (1991). His performed but unpublished plays include 'Salonika Bound' (ca.1997), 'The Picnic' (1999) and 'Elena and the Nightingale' (date unknown).
The Australian Council has awarded Tom a Writers' Fellowship and Residency in Rome at the B.R Whiting Library in Rome, and he was awarded a Creative Fellowship from the State Library of Victoria.