Illusion of Separateness (Booy)

Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Wales, UK
• Education—B.A., University of Plymouth; M.F.A.,
   Long Island University
• Awards—Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City


Simon Van Booy is a British writer who lives in the United States. He grew up in rural Wales, but has lived in Kentucky, Paris, Athens, New York City and the Hamptons. Love Begins in Winter won the 2009 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.

Fiction
Van Booy has written two collections of short stories, The Secret Lives of People in Love (2011 Finalist Award for The Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature) and Love Begins in Winter, which won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the world's richest short story prize. The New York Times said that “Incurable romantics will savor Simon Van Booy’s tender, Maupassant-like fables.” While the Los Angeles Times said of Van Booy’s, The Secret Lives of People in Love” [that], “One worries, after reading a debut short-story collection this breathtaking, what Simon Van Booy could possibly do for an encore. Write something longer?”

Van Booy's first novel, Everything Beautiful Began After, was released in 2011 and was nominated for the 2012 Indies Choice Book Award for Fiction. His second novel, The Illusion of Separateness was released in 2013. Publishers Weekly gave the novel starred review, saying "the writing is what makes this remarkable book soar."

Works of philosophy
Van Booy is the editor of three volumes of philosophy, entitled Why We Fight, Why We Need Love, and Why Our Decisions Don't Matter, which the Economist said “have an instinctive appeal.” The Wall Street Journal described Van Booy's books as “brimming with thoughts from history's pre-eminent ponderers.”

Essays
Van Booy's essays have been published in newspapers internationally, including the New York Times, New York Post, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Mail, (London) Times. They have also been broadcast on National Public Radio. Van Booy's essays cover topics such as fashion, literacy, history, travel, and living with his daughter as a single-parent.

Stage and screen
In 2011 Van Booy delivered his first full-length stage comedy, and wrote an award-winning short film for the Morgans Hotel Group called Love Is Like Life But Longer, directed by Poppy de Villeneuve, and starring Jeremy Strong, Maya Kazan, and Joan Copeland.

Teaching and lecturing
Van Booy lectures frequently at schools, universities, and libraries in the US, UK, and China. He teaches part-time at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and at Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus. He is an advocate of education as a means of social reform, and involved in the Rutgers University Early College Humanities program (REaCH) for young adults living in under-served communities.

Design
In 2009 Van Booy’s collection of short stories, Love Begins in Winter, was launched at Partners & Spade in New York City, a studio and storefront which “produces films, books, apparel, and conceptual products as well as marketing and branding projects for select corporate clients.” Van Booy was the curator of an exhibition of props and dioramas of dramatic scenes from his story collection, which included custom-made stethoscopes (with quotes from the stories) and vintage Renault workshop posters, all designed by Van Booy. Since 2009, Partners & Spade have carried Van Booy’s “custom vintage Antarctic explorers’ skis,” and cold-weather hats, which he designed to support research in Antarctic regions and raise awareness for the Scott Polar Research Institute at University of Cambridge. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/17/2013.)