“Eyeballs Growing All Over Me … Again” is the third short story compilation from author Tony Rauch for young adults. The book contains 23 stories full of action, adventure and fantasy that are funny, charming and fantastic.

The imagination behind these individual plots is endless, with each story almost as far-fetched as the last. One story will be about a girl so sick that her head must be replaced by that of a goat, while another is about a boy visited by aliens that take him to rock concerts of the past. The reader will find tales of strange secrets, odd events and amazing surprises all wrapped up in this one book.

Despite the odd circumstances each story leads to, they all manage to stay rooted in everyday life so that their events seem completely plausible. In the first story, for instance, a man comes home from work to be greeted by a nasty, smelly monster in his living room. When he asks his wife what happened, she just shrugs and said the thing wandered in, as if it were completely normal.

In addition, some stories attempt to teach the reader a lesson. A man who feels like he has wasted his life one day suddenly finds himself hunted by a giant chicken. He eventually gets sick of running and gathers the courage to fight back, learning a lesson about himself in the process. The chicken becomes a metaphor for solving your problems.

The book is not necessarily one that can keep the reader invested from cover to cover. Upon finishing one story you’ll feel fulfilled enough to set it down and do something else. The stories vary in length, from less than a page to ten or twelve. The longer ones can leave a reader spent and ready to move on with their day.

Rauch’s book is a delight to read. Each story has its own way of connecting back to the reader, giving you an extra level of understanding beyond the plot’s detail. It’s almost as if you are the main character going on a series of wild adventures.

“Eyeballs” is a fantastic book, great for reading on breaks from work or school. If you are looking for something to let your imagination loose, this is the perfect book for it.

Eminent Assamese writer Surendra Nath Medhi, better know by his pen name Saurav Kumar Chaliha, breathed his last on Saturday at a private hospital in the city after a prolonged illness. The 81-year-old author, who won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, had written several critical pieces on Assamese literature.

Considered by many to be the most innovative writer of Assamese short stories, Medhi had created a space for himself over the decades. He was born in 1930 and educated in Guwahati and London University before joining Assam Engineering College as a Physics professor.

The news of his demise left his fans in deep shock. “It’s a great loss to the literary world of the state,” said noted scholar Hiren Gohain at Mehdi’s funeral service.

The winners of Concern’s Worldwide creative writing competition for 2011 have just been released .

Irish writers were ahead of the field in the senior category with: Louise Burke from Thurles, Ciara Scanlon from Dungarvan and Katie Black from Tallagh  lifting the prizes in the senior category

However, in the adult categories, the first three prizes were picked up from writers in Australia, Canada and the Virgin Islands.

While  Paul Kelly, a student at Trinity College Dublin, won the top prize in the college section,  two writers from India picked up the second and third prize

This was truly a worldwide competition.

Tom Arnold, chief executive of Concern Worldwide said that “this year’s essays have really been of a remarkably high standard.” Arnold went on to say, “But what has struck me most of all is the passion and interest the writers have shown.”

More than 770 essays from 39 countries were entered.

The winning essays and extracts from other entrants will be published in book form

Amy Sackville, is a busy woman not only is she a working creative writer but she is also an  Associate Lecturer with the Open University teaching  Creative Writing. We are pleased to say that Amy has won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize for her first novel The Still Point. I am particularly pleased for Amy as I’m an ex-student of the Open University

Claire Allfree, chair of judges said: ‘We are thrilled that Amy Sackville has won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize this year with her debut novel The Still Point. Her ambitious, beautifully constructed book encapsulates all the qualities of a young, emerging writer that the Prize seeks to celebrate: it has a huge imaginative scope, it tells its story in unexpected, subtle ways and her use of language took our breath away. She is a writer of seemingly limitless promise and, amid some tough competition, a thoroughly deserving winner.’

A $1 million campaign honoring the name of the late Frank McCourt is aiming to underpin the Frank McCourt Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

And the campaign is more than half way to its goal following a recent kick off in New York that attracted former president Bill Clinton.

That curtain raiser, attended by a number of literary figures including Frank’s author brothers Malachy and Alfie and the author’s widow, Ellen Frey McCourt, raised in excess of $500,000 on the night.

“Everyone has a story to tell in life but Frank wrote uniquely about his, and in doing so, has inspired many others to put their own stories down on paper”, stated President Clinton in his tribute to the author of Angela’s Ashes who died in July, 2009.

“I love that the University of Limerick will bring creative writing and storytelling back to Ireland in a fresh way through this chair,” said Clinton.

University of Limerick President, Professor Don Barry, remembered fondly McCourt’s commitment to the advancement of the University of Limerick as a director of the University of Limerick Foundation.

In addition to been a University of Idaho Professor Daniel Orozco is also a working author and part of his course teaches students how to become active writers. How to make writing a major, if not the  sole way, part of their income.

Certainly the calibre of his story telling is a firm indicator that he is master of his subject. And if you can do it well it doesn’t hurt to pass on  your knowledge and experience to others.

The authors new collection of stories “Orientation,” published by Faber & Faber has been long-listed for the  international Frank O’Connor Short Story Award. Win the award and you walk away with about $51,000

Orozco a former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University “I didn’t expect to stay going on eight years now, but here I am,” Orozco said. I’m glad it worked out.”

When asked what benefits  a working writer offer students that someone who is not publishing their stuff doesn’t?  Replied, “The same thing a working cabinetmaker offers to students, or a working sculptor or photographer,” he also said tha, “Those who practice their craft – who have their hands in it, making and doing, using the tools still – are best able to bring the craft to students.”

The 2011 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize is awarded to the author of a collection of short stories published for the first time in English, anywhere in the world, between July 2010 and June 2011: selecteds, collecteds or books containing stories published in a previous volume of stories by the author are not eligible. The recent inclusion of his name on the O’Connor Award long-list is an unexpected honor.