About the Author

Kevin Gerard Neill

Kevin Gerard Neill, authour of A Cypress Tree Has No Shadow, Checkpoint 104, and other stories, left a twenty-year career in public health at local, state, and international levels to pursue writing.

Neill’s stories are mostly about modern-day women striving to succeed in cultures and worlds dominated by men. These women are soldiers, doctors, teachers, refugees. Some are religious, many not, and a few are children. Neill’s insights originated from his experience in the medical field, years spent living abroad in the Middle East and Europe, and academic work at a small Vermont college and then Boston University, mostly in women’s studies. He was often one of the few men to be found in these arenas, and it led to his interest in portraying women in fiction, guided by a sense that even in today’s literature, women are often overlooked despite the colours they bring to the kaleidoscope of characterisation and human experience.

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Neill is also the authour of published journal articles on women’s health (e.g., rape of women in wartime, cultural and gender approaches to health care utilization, and the failures of exporting U.S. models of managed care to developing countries). He is a decorated United States Army Veteran.