Paddy Reid was a leading light in the campaign to clear the names of Irishmen, including his father, who were blacklisted as “deserters” for serving in the British Armed Forces during the Second World War; Justice Minister Alan Shatter granted the men a full pardon in 2012. Paddy mainly writes stories about an inner-city community he calls “Portside”. His short fiction and creative non-fiction can be found in US and Canadian university literary journals, such as Salt Hill, Sou’wester, Connecticut Review and the Stinging Fly. He received the Anton Chekhov Award for Short Story (USA) in 1996, and the Winter Award (Colorado) in 2017. THE RIVER HEALER recounts his years working with communities on the edge in Wisconsin, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.