Mike Donoghue

Mike Donoghue

About

Mike Donoghue grew up in a small fishing village on the East Coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, and now resides in Vancouver. Mike’s stories have appeared in anthologies, literary journals, sci-fi magazines, and online. He has been a James White Award runner-up, a Sunburst Award finalist, Pulp Literature Raven winner for best short story of the year, and a reader at the Vancouver Word Festival. Mike works in public health research, where he spends much of his time preoccupied with herding cats.

Readings

Reader at Word Vancouver 2016 on the Eco-fiction stage for the short story “Double Double” published in Winds of Change anthology, a collection of short stories about our climate.

Interviews

Kathy Steinemann interviews Michael Donoghue, author of “The Demise of Great Expectations,”

Author Showcase: Michael Donoghue “trapeze magazine”

Awards/Nominations

• Sunburst Shortlist 2016 for “Stuck in the Past”

Shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for the shortlisted story “Stuck in the Past” which originally appeared in Issue 54 of Abyss & Apex. The judges described Michael as “a prolific speculative fiction writer who’s writing has inventive plot twists, convincing scientific jargon, is outlandish, clever, and completely hilarious.” 

• Pulp Literature Hummingbird Shortlist 2015 and 2019 

Shortlisted for the Hummingbird Flash Fiction prize in 2015 for “’The Demise of Great Expectations’“ and 2019 for “The Decline of the Human Race”.  

• James White Award 2019 Second place for 2019 for “Property Crime”  

“In 2019, the judges awarded a special commendation to runner up Property Crime by Michael Donoghue – who missed out by the narrowest margin in the Award’s history.”

• Pulp Literature: The 2019 Raven Short Story Contest Winner for “Life4Sale”  

Judge JJ Lee: “‘Life4Sale’ showed in its epistolary structure a great command of character voice. The world building and the weird factor are efficiently established without ever forgetting that character motive and conflict are what make a short story tick. It never bogs down in the spec fic mechanics. I appreciated how it is the kind of story you may find on Black Mirror or, if you’re old enough, classic Twilight Zone.”

Coming Soon: Legion Revisited

The dying Pope gives Bishop Francisco a mission. A mission from God. Kill two Vatican scientists and burn their lab down.

Twenty years later, in a surveillance state where every step is tracked, “Dave” has spent a decade as a ghost in the system — no name, no record, no past. With one rule: never get involved.

Then he breaks it.

Now he’s tangled up with a teenage boy who insists he’s not the Dalai Lama, even though the kid is claiming refugee status on the grounds of religious persecution from his followers, a Smart(ass)Gun who insists it has Vatican diplomatic immunity, and an assassin who Just. Won’t. Die.

Then Caroline starts hunting him. A senior investigator from the dreaded National Crime and Identity Agency. She’s good. Very good. He should know — he trained her.

A secret connects all of them. A secret that died with the Pope.

To survive, the man with no name will need to do more than uncover the truth; he’ll have to stop being a ghost.