Maria Donovan

Maria Donovan is a native of Dorset and has strong connections with Wales and Holland. Past career choices include training as a nurse in the Netherlands, busking with music and fire around Europe and nine years as a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan.

Among her publications are: Tea for Mr Dead, flash fiction (Leaf, 2006) and Pumping Up Napoleon and other stories (Seren, 2007). Further short stories appear in anthologies: ‛The House Demon’ in Sing, Sorrow, Sorrow (Seren, 2010), ‛The Wish Dog’ in The Wish Dog and other stories (Honno, 2014) and ‛Learning to Say До Свидания’ in New Welsh Short Stories (Seren, 2015). She draws on her experiences of place and of crossing borders, for instance in ‛Slaughterhouse Field’, commissioned for New Welsh Review, and set amongst caravan people in Holland. Her fiction is often offbeat, exploring uneasy relationships, mind and body: ‛My Own CVA’ was a prizewinner in a competition run by The Lancet; ‘My Cousin’s Breasts’ was shortlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize. Her flash fiction story ‘Chess’ won the Dorset Award in the Bridport Prize 2015.

Maria’s debut novel, The Chicken Soup Murder, was a finalist for the Dundee International Book Prize.

She can be found online at www.mariadonovan.com and on twitter @mariadonovanwri