Description: "In this coming-of-age literary thriller, Ahdaf, a gay Syrian refugee, after watching his cousin executed by ISIS for being homosexual, flees to Istanbul for safety"--
Brief description:
Raised crisscrossing America pulling a small green trailer behind the family car, Timothy Jay Smith developed a ceaseless wanderlust that has taken him around the world many times. En route, he's found the characters that people his work. Polish cops and Greek fishermen, mercenaries and arms dealers, child prostitutes and wannabe terrorists, Indian Chiefs and Indian tailors: he's hung with them all in an unparalleled international career that saw him smuggle banned plays from behind the Iron Curtain, maneuver through Occupied Territories, represent the U.S. at the highest levels of foreign governments, and stowaway aboard a 'devil's barge' for a three-day crossing from Cape Verde that landed him in an African jail.
Tim brings the same energy to his writing that he brought to a distinguished career, and as a result, he has won top honors for his novels, screenplays and stage plays in numerous prestigious competitions. Istanbul Crossing won the Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize in 2023. Fire on the Island (Arcade Publishing, July 2020) won the Gold Medal in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for the Novel, and his screenplay adaptation of it was named Best Indie Script by WriteMovies.
Another novel, The Fourth Courier, set in Poland, published in 2019 also by Arcade Publishing, received tremendous reviews and is currently competing in many competitions. Previously, he won the Paris Prize for Fiction (now the Paris Literary Prize) for his novel, A Vision of Angels. Kirkus Reviews called Cooper's Promise "literary dynamite" and selected it as one of the Best Books of 2012.
Tim was nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize. He's an avid theater-goer and playwright himself. His stage play, How High the Moon, a gay love story set in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, won the prestigious Stanley Drama Award.
He is the founder of the Smith Prize for Political Theater.
Review Quotes: Praise
for Timothy Jay Smith
loses everything and has to make their way in a world that's completely new?
Istanbul Crossing draws you in with its protagonist, Syrian refugee Ahdaf, and
a plot that never lets up." -- Deborah Kalb, author of Off to Join the Circus Other
books by Timothy Jay Smith Fire on the Island "Smith offers the perfect blend
of intrigue, romance, and travelogue." -- Publishers Weekly Gold Medal, 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for
the Novel The Fourth Courier "Smith skillfully bridges police
procedural and espionage fiction, crafting a show-stealing sense of place and
realistically pairing the threats of underworld crime and destabilized
regimes." -- Booklist Finalist, Best Gay Mystery, 2020
Lambda Literary Awards A Vision of Angels "A taut thriller ... brings
together an intriguing quartet of characters - an Israeli war hero, a
Palestinian farmer, an American war correspondent and an Arabian-Christian
grocer ..." -- New York Daily News Winner, Paris Prize for Fiction
Finalist, Foreword Reviews' Book of the Year Award Cooper's Promise "Literary dynamite ..." -- Kirkus
Reviews, a Best Book of 2012