Background
Chris Arthur was born in 1955 in Belfast and lived for many years in County Antrim.
2017
Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4HN, United Kingdom
Chris Arthur teaching a masterclass at the University of Dundee in 2017.
Chris Arthur in St. Andrews.
Chris Arthur with his daughters.
Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, United Kingdom
Chris Arthur studied at the University of Edinburgh. He got a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
Chris Arthur
(We live in a religiously plural world, one in which Buddh...)
We live in a religiously plural world, one in which Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, variously picture the nature and purpose of human existence. Which religious account, if any, should we accept, and on what grounds? Is it legitimate to construct a worldview using material from several faiths? Using the image of a hall of mirrors to symbolize our new multi-religious consciousness, "Religious Pluralism" considers how the individual might answer such challenging questions.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888570547/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i5
2000
(In this book author Chris Arthur continues his experiment...)
In this book author Chris Arthur continues his experiments with the mercurial literary genre of the essay, using it in innovative ways to explore aspects of family, place, memory, loss, and meaning. Through these unique prose meditations, readers are led to a dozen unexpected windows in Ireland.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0230615341/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1
2009
("Words of the Grey Wind" gathers together ten of the best...)
"Words of the Grey Wind" gathers together ten of the best of Chris Arthur's essays to showcase the extraordinary emotional depth and lyrical range of a unique voice in Irish writing.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0856408433/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i6
2009
(The carefully crafted, meditative essays in "On the Shore...)
The carefully crafted, meditative essays in "On the Shoreline of Knowledge" sometimes start from unlikely objects or thoughts, a pencil or some fragments of commonplace conversation, but they soon lead the reader to consider fundamental themes in human experience.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NZ9LOO/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0
2012
Chris Arthur was born in 1955 in Belfast and lived for many years in County Antrim.
Chris Arthur studied at the University of Edinburgh. He got a Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
Chris Arthur worked as a warden on a nature reserve in Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. He spent some time as a TV researcher and then as a schoolteacher before taking up academic posts at the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews.
On being appointed to a lecturer at St. David's University College (later the University of Wales, Lampeter), he moved to Welsh-speaking rural Ceredigion and lived there for over a decade. When Lampeter merged with a neighboring college and began to embrace priorities and policies with which he disagreed, Chris Arthur resigned and returned to Scotland to concentrate full-time on writing.
Chris Arthur's "Irish Nocturnes" is the first of the two volumes contains eighteen essays. The essay includes reflections on his childhood and the beauty of nature, ruminations on the history of linen and its symbolic and metaphorical meanings, thoughts about the word "ferrule," and a description of a frightening midnight walk through a tunnel to an old graveyard.
In one interview for the Charlotte Austin Review Website, Chris Arthur told: "I borrow the term nocturne from the Irish composer John Field to describe a particular type of essay one written in a pensive, meditative, introspective key. You might also describe the book as a creative non-fiction or literary non-fiction."
Arthur's original intent was to publish one large volume of collected essays. But his publisher decided that two smaller volumes were a better approach.
Arthur's second volume of essays "Irish Willow," also received stellar reviews.
Arthur's essays have appeared in many of the leading North American literary journals, including The American Scholar, Descant, Hotel Amerika, The Literary Review, North American Review, Northwest Review, Orion, Southern Humanities Review, Southwest Review, and Threepenny Review. He has also published in Irish Pages.
Arthur is the author of articles and essays that appeared in his collection of articles titled "Biting the Bullet - Some Personal Reflections on Religious Education." Also, many of his essays touch on religious issues, such as "The Empty Heart."
His work has frequently been included in the "Notable Essays of the Year" lists compiled annually by Robert Atwan and published in The Best American Essays volumes (published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). These lists include work by writers of the caliber of Joan Didion, E. L. Doctorow, William Gass, Edward Hoagland, Jamaica Kincaid, Ursula Le Guin, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer, Stephen Jay Gould, Ursula Le Guin, Phillip Lopate, Barry Lopez, Salman Rushdie, Gore Vidal, Edmund White, and others.
(The carefully crafted, meditative essays in "On the Shore...)
2012(In this book author Chris Arthur continues his experiment...)
2009("Words of the Grey Wind" gathers together ten of the best...)
2009(We live in a religiously plural world, one in which Buddh...)
2000Many of Arthur's works touch on religious issues. So, in the essay "The Empty Heart" Arthur discusses current society's predilection for believing that there is nothing more the life than meets the eye and how religions provide important symbols to help people see the world as a place of mystery and awe.
Quotations: "All I know is that I've been moved to express myself in writing for almost as long as I can remember. I've always been entranced by the beauty and intricacies of language, and still find it amazing what it can be used to convey."
Chris Arthur has two daughters.