You could say Simon Van Booy is settling nicely into life as a writer. Van Booy, a single dad, lives with his five year old daughter, Madeleine, in Brooklyn where he runs into the types of people writers need to know in the world.
“You meet editors at dinners and there are always events, readings, cocktail parties and foreign films,” says Van Booy.
Back in September, Van Booy’s second collection of short stories, “Love Begins in Winter,” won the International Frank O’Connor Prize in Cork, Ireland. Known as “the world’s richest short story prize,” it comes with a purse of €35,000 (about $50,000 in U.S. dollars).
And though he’s got an apartment in Williamsburg and a major writing award under his belt, Van Booy, who grew up in rural Wales, longs for the isolation of the East End where he envisions owning a pick up truck and a dog.
“I want to move to Shelter Island,” says Van Booy. “I think it’s a great place for a child to grow up. I like the middle of nowhere. I go crazy in the middle of somewhere.”
Van Booy, a former writer for The Sag Harbor Express, got to know the East End as a student in the MFA Program in Writing at Southampton College. He still spends weekends here and on Saturday, will read from “Love Begins in Winter” at Canio’s Books. In fact, he confesses, many of the characters in his stories were inspired by the clientele of The American Hotel.
“I’ve even heard Russian being spoken in there,” says Van Booy. “I like how it’s a really odd place. You have people wandering around in their socks, probably because they’re staying there. A lot of people there have made it in my stories.”
The hotel may provide the inspiration, but Van Booy credits Southampton College — now Stony Brook Southampton — for giving him focus.
“It’s where you find your voice and develop a sense of direction as a writer,” says Van Booy. “It was at Southampton that I realized I wanted to be a short story writer, that’s where I naturally gravitated and everything clicked.”
Van Booy has just finished his first novel, “The Greek Affair” due out in spring of 2011, and has edited three volumes of philosophy, “Why We Fight,” “Why We Need Love” and “Why Our Decisions Don’t Matter,” which come out this winter. When asked how he felt upon learning he had won the Frank O’Connor Prize, Van Booy admits that shock was the first emotion.
“First the publisher said you made the long list,” recalls Van Booy. “I said, ‘What’s the long list?’ I was told it’s the short list before it becomes the short list. I looked at it and saw it was hundreds of people and thought, ‘That’s nice.’”
“Then I got a letter saying ‘you’ve been short listed’ and thought, ‘Now we’re cooking,’” says Van Booy who traveled to Ireland to accept the prize. “I thought there had been a mistake and that I’d better go back to what I was doing and forget about it. I thought I better be quiet because if it’s a mistake, later it would be embarrassing.”
But Madeleine knew there was no mistake. When the check from the prize arrived, Van Booy decided to be irresponsible for a week or two and he took his daughter shopping for some new clothes at J. Crew.
“Madeleine was trying on three dresses in the changing room. She came out and said, ‘What do you think?’ I looked at the price and went, ‘Good God, these are $100 each,’” recalls Van Booy. “She just kept looking at herself in the mirror and said, ‘Yeah, but didn’t you win some kind of award?’”
Simon Van Booy reads at 6 p.m. on Saturday, December 12 at Canio’s Books (290 Main Street, Sag Harbor, 725-4926).
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