Stephen Rea
New Orleans, LA
Stephen Rea is a New Orleans-based freelance writer who has contributed to national and international newspapers, magazines, and Web sites for over twenty years. Originally from Northern Ireland, he won a writing grant from the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in 2006.
After his move to New Orleans, Rea discovered an Irish bar called Finn McCool’s with an eccentric blend of locals and ex-pats. They formed a soccer team, and he wrote Finn McCool’s Football Club while he was displaced to Texas after Hurricane Katrina. The story follows not only Rea’s struggles through that difficult period but the rest of the team’s as well.
Rea’s eclectic life has led him to more than one hundred countries, all seven continents, and all fifty U.S. states. In Belfast he spent his childhood against the backdrop of bombings and shootings in that country during the seventies and eighties, and toured the world with rock star Ozzy Osbourne as his assistant road manager.