Interview

An Interview With Author Thomas J. Rice

When I first met Thomas J. Rice, back in 2016, he had already finished writing his first collection of short stories, “Rites of Passage: Five Irish Stories” and was looking forward to offering it a representative, striking cover art. I was fortunate enough to inspire Thomas with my portfolio and so the seed of our collaboration took root.

An Irish-born writer with an incredible talent for expressive storytelling that abounds with elaborate characters, Thomas J. Rice’s novels will keep you on the edge of your seat.

,

The Author’s Show

,

Thomas J. Rice, author of "Rites of Passage: Five Irish Stories"

Conducted in 2017 by Linda Thompson, host of “The Authors Show” since 2005; the show is a podcast made available on multiple online channels across the US, each featuring one individual author for a full 24 hours, Monday through Thursday. For more details, google “The Authors Show.”

Told with sympathy and humor, the five Irish stories in Thomas Rices' Rites of Passage are of homeland lost and recovered, of fierce loyalties, of dashed and regained hopes, of betrayals and humiliations, of boys making their perilous journeys to manhood, of single mothers eking an existence out of stony soil, of the foibles and follies of small town communities, of grown men escaping the long shadow of childhood trauma.

,

Writer’s Voice Podcast

,

Memoirs of Ireland

Americans like to honor Saint Patrick’s Day by downing green beer and watching the colleens high step Irish jigs on the parade floats passing by. But it’s a good time to remember that it wasn’t all sweetness and light back in the old country. There was a reason why so many of Ireland’s young men and women had to leave their verdant homeland and make their way to the gritty streets of America. The brutal British rule over Ireland impoverished their families and their nation, forcing the families apart in a quest for survival.

Thomas Rice was one of those young men. He grew up in a remote farming community, Ballinvalley, Ireland, near the foothills of Mt. Leinster. He left his family farm at the age of 16, coming to the U.S. Rice eventually made the transition from barely educated Irish farm boy to professor of sociology. But, as with all emigrants, the bittersweet memories of his youth continued to percolate through his mind for the next fifty years. Now he’s come out with his memoir of his Irish youth, FAR FROM THE LAND.