James Redwood, the first winner of the “Notre Dame Review” Book Prize for Fiction, will read at the Eck Center on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. In order to be eligible for this prize, writers must have been published in the “Notre Dame Review” (NDR) before but must not have published a full volume of fiction or poetry yet. The prize honors first volumes, and NDR’s editor, English professor William O’Rourke, selects the winners.

The NDR is an independent literary magazine of American and international fiction, poetry, criticism and art. English department chair Valerie Sayers founded it in 2013.

Redwood is the inaugural winner of this prize for his collection of short stories, “Love Beneath the Napalm,” which was published last fall. The 13 stories explore themes related to the Vietnam War and the lasting effects it had on Vietnamese, American and French citizens. The author will sign copies after his reading, and additional copies will be available for sale in the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore.

Redwood’s life experiences seem to have helped shape this collection of work. Born in Baltimore in 1949, Redwood attended Oberlin College and then moved to Saigon, South Vietnam, to teach English. He went on to work for a social welfare group helping street children who had been displaced by the war, and later he returned to America to attend law school. After law school, Redwood worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. In 1989, he moved to Albany, N.Y., and joined the teaching faculty at the Albany Law School, where he still teaches.

Redwood’s writing career began in 1993 when he started publishing stories about Vietnam. He has published nine stories in the “Notre Dame Review” since 2005. The story collection for which he won the Book Prize for Fiction includes eight of the nine stories he has published in the NDR, as well as five new stories.

Tags: Book Prize, Books, Events, Fiction, literature, Notre Dame Review