by Laurie Hertzel
"Love Begins in Winter," published earlier this year by Harper Perennial, has won the 2009 Frank O'Connor Award. Author Simon Van Booy grew up in Wales and in Oxford; he lives in New York now, and his journalism has appeared in the new York Times, the New York Post and elsewhere. His first collection of fiction, "The Secret Lives of People in Love," was translated into eight languages.
He tells Irish writer and blogger Nuala Ni Chonchuir that he plays fiddle for his five-year-old daughter and has recently taken up Irish traditional dancing.
Of course, you don't have to be Irish to win the Frank O'Connor Award. Previous winners include Jhumpa Lahiri and Haruki Murakami.
