Siobhan Fallon’s unforgettable collection of short stories, You Know When the Men Are Gone, was released earlier this year to significant critical acclaim. Fallon credits her father, born in Dromahair, County Leitrim, with encouraging her literary talents. “He recognized something early on, since he kept giving me all of these Irish writers to read,” Fallon said in an interview with Irish America.

Fallon was raised in upstate New York, with frequent visits to her grandparents’ horse farm in Leitrim. After graduating from college, she spent a year in Ireland, taught English in Japan, worked at her father’s bar, as a hotel receptionist, and then at literary magazines, and earned her MFA from The New School.

Along the way, Fallon also developed deep insight into the lives of Army wives: her husband, K.C. Evans, was a major when they met and is currently a Foreign Area Officer in Jordan. You Know When the Men Are Gone draws from Fallon’s experiences at various Army stations throughout the U.S., particularly Fort Hood. Fallon’s eloquent and culturally important work received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and great praise from The New York Times and many other publications. Up next for Fallon is a novel based around the same themes explored in her short stories, but with a suspenseful twist.