Thomas M. Mayr was born in Cologne in 1955; he grew up in Trier and Koblenz, studied ethnology, education (M.A.) and medicine (doctorate) in Mainz, lived in Saarbrücken for a time and now resides in Kirchheimbolanden/Northern Palatinate. 
From 1996 to December 2022, he practised as a doctor of psychosomatic medicine and psychiatry in the Donnersberg district.
He only began writing poetry and fiction in 2000. He has published several volumes of poetry and established the genre of Kippgedichte (tilted poems), in which he transferred what tilted pictures represent in painting to poetry. He also inspired a new definition of Vexiergedichte (puzzle poems). 
As chairman of the Donnersberg Literary Association, he is the initiator and co-organiser of the Donnersberg Literature Days. He is a member of PEN Germany, an advisory board member of the Literary Association of the Palatinate and the Literature Association of Rhineland-Palatinate-Saarland. He is a jury member for the Susanne Faschon Prize and was also involved in the awarding of the Bonn Literature Prize (preliminary jury).