Today was the day that Frank O’Connor Short Story Award winner was announced at the Stack Theatre, Cork City, Ireland, and I have it on good authority that the winner, selected from the shortlist of six (second ‘Book Bite’), was Simon Van Booy for his Love Begins in Winter story collection.
Since it’s launch at the start of May Love Begins in Winter has been kicking up a bit of a positive storm around the review circuit, and for a while now people have been talking about how good a writer Van Booy is (I raved myself about the poetic beauty of his prose back in February) so it’s great to see such a worthy winner taking the prize.
I am somewhat embarrassed because I’ve had Love Beings in Winter on my TBR pile for a while now, even before the shortlist was announced in June, so I really should have been a lot better prepared for commenting. I also had the opportunity to go and see Van Booy at the Edinburgh Book Festival last month, and I missed out on going to that too. So arrgghhh….I’m kicking myself tonight 
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Anyway congratulations to Mr. Van Booy, who along with taking the top slot, also walks away with a healthy cheque for €35,000
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