Conor Kostick

Kostick is the eldest of two boys born to teachers Gerrie and Marjorie Kostick in Chester, England. His father was Jewish-Irish, brought up in Dublin but having moved to the UK in the 1950s, where he became a physical education teacher, while his mother was a teacher of maths.^[1] One set of grandparents were Polish Jews, who moved to Ireland to escape pogroms.^[2] Kostick attended a local comprehensive school in Chester.^[3]

Conor Kostick was the editor of Socialist Worker in Ireland and a reviewer for the Journal of Music in Ireland.^[4]

A historian, he holds a doctorate, and has lectured and researched at Trinity College Dublin.^[4] He has been awarded research fellowships by the Irish Research Council and the University of Nottingham.^[5]

In August 2018, he was recruited by the UK's Ockham Publishing to lead a new imprint, Level Up publishing, with a remit to publish LitRPG.^[6]

Epic, a LitRPG volume, was his first novel and was awarded a place on the International Board on Books for Young People Honours list for 2006^[7] and on the Booklist Best Fantasy Books for Youth list for 2007.^[8] It sold more than 100,000 copies.^[5] The sequel to Epic is Saga, first published in Ireland late in 2006; Edda, published 5 years later, in 2011, completed the 'Avatar Chronicles' trilogy.^[9]

Conor Kostick was a designer for the UK's first live action role-playing game, Treasure Trap.^[10]

Kostick was twice chairperson of the Irish Writers Union. He was awarded the Farmleigh writer's residency for the summer of 2010.^[11][5] In 2015, Kostick was made chairperson of the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency.

He was President of the Irish Jury for the EU Prize for Literature in 2015,^[12] and in that year too he was appointed to the Board of the National Library of Ireland.^[13]

In 2018, the Kerala Literature Festival, India, chose to showcase Irish literature and Conor Kostick was one of seven Irish writers invited to participate.^[14] In 2019, Conor Kostick again was president of the Irish Jury of the EU Prize for Literature.^[15]

At their 2009 awards, the Reading Association of Ireland gave Kostick the Special Merit Award 'in recognition of his significant contribution to writing for children in Ireland.'^[9]

Kostick was a nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2012^[16] and 2013.^[17]

As a historian, Kostick's awards include a gold medal from Trinity College Dublin,^[4] first prize in the 2001 Dublinia Medieval Essay Competition; fellowships from the Irish Research Council and the University of Nottingham; a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant;^[18] and, in 2015, the British Academy's Rising Star Engagement Award.^[19]

A former winner of Manorcon (2000), now one of Europe's grand prix Diplomacy events,^[20] Conor Kostick was a member of the Irish team that won the Diplomacy National World Cup in 2012.^[21]

He is the brother of the playwright Gavin Kostick^[22] and a member of Independent Left.^[23]

• Epic (O'Brien Press, 2004; Viking Children's Books, Spring 2007).
• Saga (O'Brien Press, 2009).
• Edda (O'Brien Press/Viking Children's Books, 2011).

• Move (O'Brien Press, 2008)
• The Book of Curses (O'Brien Press, 2007, Curses & Magic, 2013).
• The Book of Wishes (Curses & Magic, 2013).
• Eternal Voyager (Curses & Magic, 2015).
• The Dragon's Revenge (Level Up, 2019).
• The Retreat (Red Stag, 2020).

• Summoned! To an RPG World (Curses & Magic, 2022).^[24]
• Summoned! To Grimworld (Curses & Magic, 2023).

• The Social Structure of the First Crusade (Brill, 2008).
• Revolution in Ireland (Cork University Press, 2009 [1996]).
• The Easter Rising, A Guide to Dublin in 1916 (Fifth Edition: O'Brien Press, 2009 [2000]), with Lorcan Collins.
• The Siege of Jerusalem (Continuum, 2009).
• Medieval Italy, Medieval and Early Modern Women – Essays in Honour of Christine Meek (Four Courts, 2010), editor.
• The Crusades and the Near East: Cultural Histories (Routledge, 2010), editor.
• Strongbow (O'Brien Press, 2013).
• Michael O'Hanrahan (O'Brien Press, 2015).
• Making the Medieval Relevant (De Gruyter, 2019), co-editor.^[25]
• Marxism and Medieval History (Curses & Magic, 2021).^[26]

• The Art of Correspondence in the Game of Diplomacy (Curses & Magic, 2015).
• Inclusive Yard Games: With Rule Changes for Visually Impaired Players (Curses & Magic, 2020), co-author with Maya Kostick.

• Irish Writers Against War (O'Brien Press, 2003), co-editor with Katherine Moore.

• Level Up editor
• EPIC by Conor Kostick at O'Brien Press
• Interview with Kostick as historian
• Interview for readers from Poland
• Interview of Kostick as novelist

• Conor Kostick at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Conor Kostick at Library of Congress, with 19 library catalogue records