Person Detail: Richard Horan

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General Information:
Full Name: Richard Horan
Biography: Richard Horan is an award-winning fiction writer and educator, as well as a book reviewer, and travel writer. Mr. Horan has lived and taught all over the world. His most recent job was as a writing instructor at the State University of New York at Oswego. Prior to that he taught English in the Wisconsin public school system, and overseas with the Department of Defense. He was stationed in both Belgium and South Korea. He has also worked as a Sports Information Director and as an adjunct ESL, writing, and journalism instructor at numerous colleges throughout New England. He also lived and taught for two years in a private school in Parma, Italy. After graduating from Boston University in 1981, he peregrinated throughout the United States before settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While there, he wrote extensively and worked as a nurse's aide in a mental hospital; it was that experience which gave him the material to write his first published novel, Life in the Rainbow. During college he worked as a night-time orderly in a Boston hospital, and during the same period of time he fought professionally throughout the United States and Canada as a middleweight boxer. He is married with two daughters ages 20 and 16. He and his wife are family-care providers for cognitively disabled adults who live with them in their home. His wife Mary is a jazz vocalist who has sung professionally around the world. She toured with the Serendipity Singers back in the 1980s; later, she toured with the SHAPE International big band throughout Europe. Both of his daughters are musicians. Mr. Horan's first novel, Life in the Rainbow (Steerforth Press, 1996), was lauded by Larry McMurtry, who wrote: "Life in the Rainbow is a moving book and Richard Horan is an original voice, one to listen for." Alan Cheuse of "All Things Considered" reviewed it on April 3, 1996. Life in the Rainbow also received rave reviews from The New York Times, The Boston Book Review, The Christian Science Monitor, Publisher's Weekly, The Kirkus Review, The Stamford Advocate, and more. Mr. Horan's second novel, Goose Music (Steerforth Press, 2001), was again blurbed by Larry McMurtry who opined: "Goose Music is funny, moving, convincing, original. Richard Horan is only getting better." It was reviewed favorably by The San Francisco Chronicle, Publisher's Weekly, The Capitol Times, The Milwaukee Journal, and others. It won numerous awards. His latest work, SEEDS: One Man's Journey to Find America's Literary Trees, will be published by Harper Collins and is due out in 2010. Awards: Barnes and Noble "New Voices" recipient for Life in the Rainbow 1996 Book Sense 76 top-ten selection July/August 2001, Goose Music Foreword Magazine "Book of the Year," Bronze Award Winner, Goose Music Great Lakes "Book of the Year" Award, Finalist, Goose Music 2001 Council for Wisconsin Writer's Ann Powers Book-Length Fiction Award, First Place, Goose Music 2001 Wisconsin Library Association "Outstanding Achievement" Goose Music 2002 Southeastern Wisconsin Educator of the year award, First Place Education: B.A. Boston University M.A.T. University of Pittsburgh.
Circuit Writer Information:
Category:	N.Y.S.
Travel Range:	Anywhere.
Transportation:	Car or plane.
Dates Available:	All seasons.
Fees:	Negotiable but absolute minimum fee is $100 plus travel, lodging, and meals.
Contact Information:	NY Email: mhoransings@yahoo.com
Author's Timeline:
2009		Oswego County Richard Horan lives in Oswego County, New York.
1996		(Unknown) County Life In The Rainbow (Pub: Steerforth Press. ISBN: ISBN-10: 1883642027; ISBN-13: 978-1883642020) Novel.
2001		(Unknown) County Goose Music (Pub: Steerforth. ISBN: ISBN-10: 1586420178; ISBN-13: 978-1586420178) Novel.
2011		(Unknown) County Seeds (Pub: Harper Collins. ISBN: ) Travelogue. One man’s quest to find the meaning of trees in American literary and popular life . . . and to collect the tree seeds to grow and preserve them. Novelist, English teacher, and book reviewer, Richard Horan, has traveled the country and gathered tree seeds from childhood homes of famous American - mostly writers - AND looked for the connection between trees and their work. He’s been to L. Frank Baum’s home and found that a wood road in front of the house where Baum grew up was made of yellow hemlock. He’s been to Kerouac’s home in Lowell and scooped up some silver maple seeds, met local people, and found passages in Kerouac’s work that show he was the most at peace when in the presence of trees. At every stop, Horan looked for the connection between the presence of trees in each famous person’s life and the possible effect on their adult lives and work. Horan met and talked with folks along the way: botanists, authors’ descendants, and booksellers who are local literary history experts. The list of authors whose homes he visited include: Wharton, Cather, Ferlinghetti, Kesey, Harper Lee, Capote, McCullers, Welty, Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Thoreau, Emerson, Melville, Rachel Carson, and many more.