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Simon Van Booy

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The Official Website: SimonVanBooy.com

Simon Van Booy was born in London and grew up in rural Wales and Oxford. In 2002 he was awarded an MFA and won the H.R. Hays Poetry Prize. His journalism has appeared in magazines and newspapers including the New York Times and the New York Post. Van Booy is the author of The Secret Lives of People in Love. He lives in New York City, where he teaches part-time at the School of Visual Arts and at Long Island University
Short Story Collections

Love Begins in Winter (HarperCollins, 2009)
 

Reviewed by Nuala Ní Chonchúir


The Secret Lives of People in Love (Turtle Point Press, 2007)
 



 Interview with Simon Van Booy

The Short Review: How long did it take you to write all the stories in your collection?

Simon Van Booy: One year--though ten years to find my voice.

TSR: Did you have a collection in mind when you were writing them?

SVB: I didn't.

TSR: How did you choose which stories to include and in what order?

SVB: These were the only stories I wrote. I let my brilliant editor pick the order.

TSR: What does the word "story" mean to you?

SVB:  A mouthful of cotton wool.

TSR: Do you have a "reader" in mind when you write stories?

SVB:  Yes, but it's someone whose identity I could never, ever reveal.

TSR: Is there anything you'd like to ask someone who has read your collection, anything at all?

SVB: How do you take your coffee?

TSR: How does it feel knowing that people are buying your book?

SVB: Strange, but wonderful--in fact, I think I encourage it.... yes yes, I do...

TSR: What are you working on now?

SVB: rearranging my room, and I just finished a novel and a three volume set of philosophy due out in August and April respectively.
TSR: What are the three most recent short story collections you've read?
SVB: Arthur Miller's latest collection; Complete works of Flannery O' Connor and the stories of Frank O'Connor (no, they were not related)