An Irish master of the short story, Frank O'Connor was born Michael O'Donovan in Cork. It is not surprising to learn in the first part of his autobiography, An Only Child (1961), that he took his adored mother's name. O'Connor's absorbing interest was the literary treasury of Ireland. He labored tirelessly over masterful translations of ancient Gaelic works. O'Connor wrote the well-received A Short History of Irish Literature: A Backward Look and edited an anthology of prose and poetry, A Book of Ireland (1959), which contains some of his own translations from the Gaelic. His Shakespeare's Progress (1960) is an appraisal of the bard. In The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story (1963), he examines the work of those he considers the great short story writers of the past. The subjects of his own stories are the middle and lower-middle classes of his beloved Ireland. In his last years, O'Connor lived mostly in the United States, where he taught at Harvard and Northwestern universities. He passed away in 1966.
The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award which is named in his honor because he devoted much of his work to this writing form began in 2005. It is an international literary award presented for the best short story collection. The prize amount is $25,000 (as of 2012). Each year, roughly sixty books are longlisted, with either four or six books shortlisted, the final decision is made by three judges. In 2014 the winner was Collin Barrett for his work Young Skins.
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