June Local Authors Market – Meet Steve O’Connor

Books, Events, Programs, Reading Room, Uncategorized
This post is part of a series introducing the authors that will be participating in our annual Local Authors Market. Read about the authors and then come to meet them and buy their books on Saturday June 24 from 2-4PM at the Main Library.
Stephen O’Connor is a native of Lowell, Massachusetts, where much of his writing is set.
He is the author of Smokestack Lightning, a collection of short stories, and two novels. The first, The Spy in the City of Books is historical fiction set in Lowell, Mass, and in WWII France. It is based in part on interviews with a former OSS operative who served in Occupied France. The second, The Witch at Rivermouth, has been described as “a cerebral mystery.” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lucinda Franks called it, “rich, eerie and intriguing.”
 
O’Connor has published stories in The Massachusetts Review, The Houston Literary Review, Lodestone Journal, Dimeshow Review, Sobotka, and elsewhere. His story “The Hipster’s Hopper” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize; “Work, Music and Love” won the Helen Literary Award for Best Short Story; “St. Lucy’s Day” received special mention in a contest in the British journal Open Road Review.
 About his latest: The past has caught up with Martin LeBris. During World War II, he served the Office of Strategic Services as a spy and saboteur in Lyon, France. Nearly sixty years later, Lowell cop Gerry O’Neil is trying to unravel the mystery of why an assassin is stalking LeBris. The answer to that question lies buried in the dark days of Nazi Occupation, and in the unforgiving memory of The Spy in the City of Books.
About his short story collection: In his first collection, Stephen O’Connor arrives fully formed as a writer–with 13 memorable stories filled with characters pulled from the streets, bars, and parishes of his historic mill-city: Lowell, Mass. He digs deep and find the essential humanity in the high and low of our daily rounds. Admired for his clear narrative style and fine ear for dialogue, O’Connor invents a world in these stories that lets us see and hear the essential drama in what might appear to be undramatic lives at first glance. His characters arise from the people whose stories often go untold. His readers are richer for the encounters in these pages.

Come speak with Rick about his experiences and check out his works when he comes to the library on June 24!