Kim Edwards grew up in Skaneateles, New York, in the heart of the Finger Lakes region. The oldest of four children, she graduated from Colgate University and the University of Iowa, where she received an MFA in Fiction and an MA in Linguistics. After completing her graduate work, she went with her husband to Asia, where they spent the next five years teaching, first on the rural east coast of Malaysia, then in a small city an hour south of Tokyo, and finally in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. During her time in Asia, Kim began to publish short fiction, and in 1990 her story Sky Juice won the Nelson Algren Award.
Robin Ince, award winning writer, comedian, TV and radio personality, presenter, and “all round popular culture pundit and film expert”, was born 20th February 1969. Having recently won the Time Out Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy for his show The Book Club, Robin began his bright career by writing for shows such as Alistair McGowen’s Big Impression, Norton and Meet Ricky Gervais– a working relationship that has since seen him supporting Ricky Gervais on his Politics tour and several others around the UK, even appearing on the DVDs!
How many times do you ask the question:
“What do you want for for Christmas?”
And get the reply:
“Nothing.”
It’s not a lot of good, is it? If you actually got them nothing, they’d be upset. So it’s that time of year again: we all have to start thinking about what we might buy our friends and family for Christmas without any help from them.
Very few authors can claim to have written a piece of work that had such a broad influence on culture that it redefined a genre of literature. But Robert Louis Stevenson can. And, in fact, he managed it twice. Stevenson wrote both Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, two books that span completely different genres and even generations. For that, he is our World of Rare Books Author of the Week.
Halloween has only just passed, and hoards of children and adults alike took to the streets in their best vampire costumes. Some will have been inspired by the sparkly heroes of Twilight, but anyone who loves real vampires should only have one man to thank for the fearsome creatures’ dominance in horror stories: Bram Stoker. Stoker’s birthday was earlier this month too, so we thought we’d celebrate by making him our World of Rare Books Author of the Week.
Just click here to take advantage of this amazing Christmas offer!