Kirith Kirin - Softcover

Grimsley, Jim; Beekman, Doug

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1892065169 ISBN 13: 9781892065162

Publisher: Meisha Merlin Pub, 2000

Synopsis

Kirith Kirin is like no other fantasy that you have ever read. Jim Grimsley has created a fantasy that could have come right from our world where power and greed can tempt, and sometimes conquer, even the most rightist person and where knowing who your friends and enemies are can be very difficult if not impossible. Yet it is not our world. For in Kirith Kirin's world magic is real, immortals walk the land, and people are sometimes the playthings for the dark arts. The Blue Queen, upon resuming the throne while King Kirith Kirin's eternality is renewed in the Arthen forest, has partnered with a magician of the dark arts. No longer does she need to leave the throne to renew her eternal nature. Swayed by promises of the dark magician, she has claimed the throne forever and is extending her influence to the far corners of the world. Malleable grey clouds, sidewinding wind, and intelligent lightning bolts made the trip across the vast Girdle nearly impossible. Out of nowhere, the Blue Queen's Patrols made haste to kill the boy and the warrior before they could safely reach the deep forest of Arthen. Riding upon two magnificent stallions, one a royal Prince out of Queen Mnemarra, Jessex and his uncle Sivisal reached Arthen despite a deadly storm that reeked of magic. Thus begins Jessex's new life as he enters Arthen and moves into the royal court of Kirith Kirin.

About this title

About the Author:

Jim Grimsley was born on September 21, 1955 in rural eastern North Carolina and was educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying writing with Doris Betts and Max Steele. He has published nineteen short stories and essays in various quarterlies, including DoubleTake, New Orleans Review, Carolina Quarterly and the New Virginia Review. His short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize on three occasions and the body of his work published in the Carolina Quarterly was nominated for a GE Outstanding Young Writer Award in 1983. Jim's story "City and Park" was listed as one of the outstanding short stories of 1982 in the Houghton Mifflin anthology Best American Short Stories of 1982.

Jim's first play, The Existentialists, was produced at ACME Theatre in May-June 1983. His second play, The Earthlings, was produced at 7Stages in January-February 1984. In 1986, Jim became Playwright-in-Residence at 7Stages and continues in that capacity to the present. His third full length play, Mr. Universe, was produced in the newly-renovated theatre in July-September 1987. The play went on to productions in New Orleans, Los Angeles and New York, where the New Federal Theatre's Off-Broadway production of the play drew praise from the New York Times.

The play won the George Oppenheimer/Newsday Playwriting Award for 1988, a $5000 prize which is given to the best new playwright being produced in the New York-Long Island area. Mr. Universe also won the Southeastern Playwriting Contest sponsored in 1986 by Southern Exposure, and an excerpt from the play was published in the summer 1986 edition. Another excerpt from the play was recently included in the actor's anthology Best Scenes of the 80s.

Jim was awarded the Bryan Family Prize for Drama by the Fellowship of Southern writers in 1993 for his distinguished body of work as a playwright. Judges for the Fellowship award were Romulus Linney and Horton Foote. Jim's full-length plays, besides those mentioned, include Math and Aftermath (1988), White People (1989), The Lizard of Tarsus (1990) and Belle Ives (1991) all premiering at 7Stages in Atlanta. Jim's adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher was presented at the Theatrical Outfit as part of the Atlanta theatre's Edgar Allen Poe Festival in February 1991 and his play Man With a Gun was produced by SAME in 1989.

Jim's first novel, Winter Birds, was published in the United States by Algonquin Books in the fall of 1994. The novel was first published in German translation in Germany in the spring of 1992, and was translated into French and published by Editions Métailié in 1994. Winter Birds won the Sue Kaufman Prize for best first novel from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. In France, Winter Birds was awarded the Priz Charles Brisset.

Jim has subsequently published two novels in the United States, 1995'sDream Boy, winner of the American Library Association's Gay/Lesbian Literary Award and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, and My Drowning, released in January of 1997, for which he was named Georgia Author of the Year. His books are available in German, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese. His novel, Comfort and Joy, will be published in October 1999 by Algonquin Books; the novel was first published in Germany in 1993.

His fiction has appeared in various anthologies, including Men on Men 6, Flesh and the Word 4, and Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction; his story in that collection, "Free in Asveroth," was selected for publication in The Year's Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois.

Jim teaches writing at Emory University in Atlanta and has been a featured reader at book events throughout the Southeast, including readings at the 1994 and 1995 Southern Book Festivals in Nashville. He is a member of the Southeast Playwrights Project, PEN America, the Dramatists Guild, and Alternate ROOTS.

From Library Journal:

In a land ravaged by the rule of the usurper known as the Blue Queen, a young boy fulfills his destiny by entering the service of Kirith Kirin, who seeks to reclaim his rightful throne. Jessex grows strong in his magical studies and fighting skills, finding both companionship and love in the company of the man he serves and discovering his crucial role in the battle against the evil that overshadows his land. Mainstream novelist and playwright Grimsley (My Drowning) crafts an elegant tale of love, war, and magic in the epic fantasy tradition. Most libraries should consider.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Meisha Merlin Pub
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1892065169
• ISBN 13: 9781892065162
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 456