Vince Mannings is lucky enough to be married to Helene; they make their home in the seaside town of Pacific Grove, California. Vince has a Ph.D. and has had a successful career in astrophysics. He was born in Liverpool, England and, with his siblings, Cathy, Kevin and Paul, was raised by Irish parents. From the age of seven until he left for college, he resided in Winsford, a town in the rural county of Cheshire.

Fiction by Vincent Mannings includes An Appreciation of the Scholar, Adalbert, published recently in the Brooklyn-based AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought. The first three chapters of his novel, Cinder Island, were also published recently in Embark: A Literary Journal for Novelists (Cambridge, Massachusetts), while the short story, Jedediah Arkansaugh, has been featured in the Long Island literary and fine arts journal, The Woven Tale Press. A fourth piece, The Critic, is in The Wilderness House Literary Review (Littleton, Massachusetts), and an excerpt of another of Vince's novels, The Laramel Shelleys, has been published in the journal, The Writing Disorder (Los Angeles). Additionally, his work has been accepted for publication by the journals A Courtship of Winds and The Zodiac Review. Readers are encouraged to support these and other journals: their content is superb, and the expertise and dedication of their editorial teams help to keep the literary world afloat.

The maternal side of Vince’s family tree includes the Irish-born literary critic Mary Maguire Colum (1884 – 1957); her life and works are described by Dr. Denise A. Ayo, formerly of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. While Mary lived primarily in New York City, her work took her to many other places, including London and the Paris of the 1920s. Her enthusiasm and diligence – she was working on the day she passed away – remain inspiring. Many of Mary’s papers are stored at Princeton University and at SUNY Binghampton.

The picture below shows Mary Maguire Colum at about 20 years of age (c. 1904); from the Binghampton archives.