Ciaran Cooper was born in Manchester, England on May 1, 1965. He attended Bennington College, earning a BA in Literature in 1987 and an MFA in Fiction Writing in 2004. In 1994, Cooper received an Artist’s Fellowship Award for Fiction from the Illinois Arts Council. From 1994 to 1995, Cooper was an Associate Fiction Editor for The Chicago Review, the University of Chicago’s literary journal. Cooper was a writer in residence at Ragdale three times from 1995 – 1997. His stories and poems have been published in nationally recognized literary journals. He is currently at work on a novel.
Artist Statement:
I’m currently at work on my first novel, and would like to use the time during the Salem2Salem residency to make revisions and edits to my first draft. Three weeks of uninterrupted time to focus on my fiction writing would be a great boon at this stage in my development as an artist – it would allow me to finally migrate my writing from a hobby to a career. Publishing the occasional short story or poem, despite winning some awards and recognition, is not a sufficient platform for me to make this shift; I need to publish a novel. My primary constraint to finishing this novel has been the lack of dedicated time to focus on the work. I am now in the fortunate position to set aside the required time, and the S2S residency would fall beautifully in line with my timetable for completion.
