James Conroyd Martin

Besides writing novels, James Conroyd Martin, a native of Chicago, taught English literature and Creative Writing for many years. His first historical novel Push Not the River is based on the diary of a 1790s Polish countess. St. Martin’s Press requested a sequel, but a trilogy eventually evolved. A novel set during the Battle of Vienna, The Boy Who Wanted Wings followed. This story of the Polish hussars, as well as the trilogy e-book, won IPPI Gold Medals. Martin moved further back in time to write of an Eva Peron-like woman in the sixth century: Empress Theodora, who rose from actress/prostitute to mistress to a powerful world leader who initiated women’s rights in Constantinople. Her story, Fortune’s Child won the overall Grand Prize Best Book in the Chanticleer Book Awards competition. A second book on Theodora completed the duology: Too Soon the Night. Martin now and writes in Portland, Oregon.