The Reading Life Review - March - 2020

The Reading Life Review - March 2020

March Authors

Column One

1. Marc de Faoite - Ireland - Malaysia, author of Tropical Madness, a collection I highly recommended

2. John Keene - USA - distinguished historian

3. Alison MacLeod - Canada to UK, highly regarded multi genre writer, I hope to follow her work for many years 

Column Two

1. Elaine Chiew - Malaysia - Singapore, author The Heartsick Diaspora, featured 13 times on The Reading Life, with more to come

2. L. Annette Binder - Germany - USA - authur of Rise, an award winning debut collection

3. Billy O'Callaghan - Ireland, two novels, four short story collections.  I have followed his work since 2012, great things are coming for him.

Column 3

1. Madeline D' Arcy - Ireland, featured numerous times, a multi-awarded writer of great talent

2. Linda Lappin - USA - Italy.  Author Katherine's Wish, and several other marvelous works.  I first began posting on her work ten years ago and hope for many more opportunities to read her work.

3. David Butler - Ireland - David Butler is a novelist, playwright, poet and writer of short fiction. With a BA in Mechanical Engineering, the literary path could initially seem a peculiar ambition for an ostensibly numerical mind. The Renaissance man later became a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and speaks no less than five languages other than his mother tongue; French, Spanish, Portuguese, Irish and Russian

Column Four

1. Catherine McNamara - Australia to Italy - Catherine McNamara grew up in Sydney and studied visual communication and African and Asian Modern History before moving to Paris.

She worked in an embassy in pre-war Mogadishu and later lived in Accra, Ghana, where she co-managed a bar and art gallery. She moved to Italy ten years ago, where her jobs have included translating welding manuals and modelling shoes.

Catherine is the author of the erotic comedy The Divorced Lady’s Companion to Living in Italy (Indigo Dreams Publishing) and wrote the children’s book Nii Kwei’s Day.  

2. Aiden O'REILLY - Ireland. Greetings, Hero was published by Honest Publishing UK in 2014, and launched in London and in Dublin.Aiden lived for nine years in Eastern Europe. He studied mathematics, and has worked as translator, building-site worker, IT teacher, and property magazine editor. His fiction has appeared in The Stinging Fly (x4), The Dublin Review (x3), The Irish Times, Prairie Schooner, 3am magazine, and in Unthology 4 and several other anthologies. His plays have been given staged readings at The Triskel in Cork and in Dublin. He won the biannual McLaverty Short Story Award in 2008. In 2012 he received a bursary from the Arts Council.

3. Elizabeth MacDonald - Ireland to Italy - a highly valued contributor to The Reading Life, author of The House of Cards and A Matter of Interpretation.  I love both these works

4. San Lin Tun - Myanmar - my second post on one of his short stories.  Many more to come.  San Lin Tun is a freelance Myanmar-English writer of essay, poetry, short story and novel and he has published ten books including “Reading a George Orwell Novel in a Myanmar Teashop and Other Essays” and his latest novel “An English Writer”.  

Column Five

1. Jaki McCarrick- Ireland - Jaki McCarrick is an award-winning writer of plays, poetry and fiction. Her debut short story collection The Scattering was published by Seren Books and was shortlisted for the 2014 Edge Hill Prize. The collection includes her story The Visit, which won the 2010 Wasafiri Short Fiction Prize and was included in Best British Short Stories (published by Salt), 2012. On the basis of her debut collection, Jaki was longlisted in 2014 for the inaugural Irish Fiction Laureate. Her play LEOPOLDVILLE won the 2010 Papatango Prize for New Writing, and her play THE NATURALISTS premiered in 2018 in New York to rave reviews: "Impeccable, a gift to its actors" New York Times; "Beautifully performed" The New Yorker. Her play BELFAST GIRLS, developed at the National Theatre Studio, London, was shortlisted for the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the 2014 BBC Tony Doyle Award. It premiered in the US in Chicago in 2015 to much critical acclaim and has since been staged widely internationally with recent premieres in Australia and Sweden. In 2016, Jaki was selected for Screen Ireland's Talent Development Initiative and has recently completed the screen adaptation of BELFAST GIRLS. She is currently working on her second collection of short fiction and her first novel, The Family Wolves. Jaki also writes critical pieces for the Times Literary Supplement, Irish Examiner, Poetry Ireland Review and other publications.

2. Steve Wade - Ireland - he has been featured five times on The Reading Life -He is an Irish Writer and English language teacher. A prize nominee for the PEN/O’Henry Award, 2011, and a prize nominee for the Pushcart Prize, 2013, his fiction has been published widely in print and online. His work has won awards and been placed in prestigious writing competitions, including being shortlisted among five in the Wasafiri Short Story Prize 2011, a nomination for the Hennessy New Irish Writer Prize, and Second Place in the International Biscuit Publishing contest, 2009. His novel ‘On Hikers’ Hill’ was awarded First Prize in the UK abook2read Literary Competition, December 2010 – among the final judging panel was the British lyricist sir Tim Rice. His fiction has been published in over twenty-five print publications, including Zenfri Publications, New Fables, Gem Street, Grey Sparrow, Fjords Arts and Literary Review, and Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. www.stephenwade.ie

3. Brian Kirk - Ireland - featured seven times on The Reading Life. Brian Kirk is a poet, short story writer, playwright and novelist from Dublin, Ireland. His work has appeared in the Sunday Tribune, Crannog, The Stony Thursday Book, Revival, Boyne Berries, Wordlegs and various anthologies. I hope to follow him for a long time

4. Qurratulaim Hyder - India, author River of Fire, quintessential Urdu novel

Birth Countries

1. Ireland - 9

2. USA - 2

3. Canada - 1

4. Malaysia - 1

5. Germany - 1

6. Australia - 1

7. Myanmar - 1

8. India - 1

In March we featured 9 women and 8 men, all but  Qurratulaim Hyder are living.  All have been previously featured on The Reading Life.

Blog Stats

Since inception there has been 5,986,693 page views.

Home countries of visitors: USA, India, Russia, The Philippines, Germany, Hong Kong, France and Canada.

There are 3715 active posts 

Future Plans.  

We will be mostly posting on short stories by writers such as Alison MacLeod, Elaine Chiew, Mavis Gallant, reading along with Buried in 

Print, Alice Adams, and Sholem Aleichem.  I will continue reading the four part science fiction classic, The Hyperion Cantos.

Blog readership was down this month, school is out over much of the world.

We wish the best to all in these difficult times.

Mel has asked us to thank Max u for his gift of Amazon Cards.

Ambrosia Bousweau

Oleander Bousweau