Tom Hughes earned both his Bachelors in English literature and Masters of Arts in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Central Oklahoma. 

He has taught university English in Miami, Florida, as well as in Korea, Saudi Arabia and Oman before joining the writing center staff at Nazarbayev University. At Nizwa University in Oman, he served on the writing center staff before moving to Nizwa University of Technology and Science to teach technical writing and technical communications.