March 1 to March 31
Brian Kirk
Dublin
Event Resources-Links to lots of short stories, from classics to brand new works. Guest posts are very welcome. Please email me if you have any questions or suggestions.
One of my goals for Irish short story month is to discover new to me writers. Yesterday I read a short story by Brian Kirk, "The Shawl" (my post on it is here) and I liked it so much I have already read a second one of his works, "New Amsterdam" which I also greatly enjoyed. According to his very well done webpage, he first began publishing in 2006 so I am very glad I have begun to read his work at the start of what I could see being a long and distinguished career.
I have already posted at some length on his story (a good bit longer than this one) "The Shawl" so I will keep this brief. New Amsterdam is set in New York City and starts on September 11, 2001, the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center. In just a few pages it compresses the history of a man who left Amsterdam (New York City was once called New Amsterdam) at age ten during its occupation during WWII by the Germans. His Uncle Franz quickly joined the Nazi party, thinking it was the way to advance himself. His mother was Jewish so they needed to go to America. When they arrived he quickly became totally Americanized, falling in love with the music of the the times. His father had been promised a job by his Dutch company in New York but it turned out not to be as good as he thought it would be. He dies two years after they arrived. (You can read the rest of the man's life history in the story).
I really liked how Kirk interwove several things: the impact of the 9/11 attacks, the fear that generated versus the fear of the Germans and his own personal fear from going blind. When follow him from 10 years old to seventy, he is a father and widower as the story ends. Sometimes he takes pride in being Dutch but his kids, his wife, and his grandchildren are are Americans. This story does a great job of bringing the man's full life to reality for us in just a few pages. It is also a brilliant Holocaust story. I recommend this story to any and all.
You can read it online here for free.
Author Data
Brian Kirk was shortlisted for Hennessy Awards for fiction in 2008 and 2011. He won the inaugural Writing Spirit Award in 2009 with his story Perpetuity. In 2010 and 2011 he was a featured reader at The Lonely Voice platform for new short story writers at the Irish Writers’ Centre. He is currently seeking a publisher for his first novel and is completing work on debut poetry and short story collections. He was chosen to be part of the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series 2013. His poems and stories have appeared in Sharp Stick, Driven Nails published by The Stinging Fly Press, the Sunday Tribune, Crannóg, The Stony Thursday Book, Revival, Abridged, Southword, Boyne Berries, Wordlegs, Burning Bush 2, WortMosaik, Can Can, Shot Glass Journal, Bare Hands Poetry, The First Cut and various anthologies.
You can learn more about Brian Kirk and find more links to his work on his webpage
Brian has kindly agreed to a Q and A for the event so please look for that.
Mel u
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