Irish America
Tom Deignan first interviewed Alice McDermott as a young journalist. He looks back now on her literary career over the past 20 years and talks to her about her new non-fiction book What About the Baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction. For four decades now, Alice McDermott has dazzled the literary world in a fashion nearly as subtle and cunning as her fiction. We … [Read more...] about Spending Time With Alice
“Whatever the future may hold, wherever it may take us, we can bring along only what we possess, and if we don’t possess our past, if instead of a true history and a significant literature, we bring along only trivia, empty myths and a handful of stories, or-worst of all -- the latest intellectually fashionable versions of ourselves, we will offer those to come after nothing of … [Read more...] about The Future of Irish AmericaPeter Quinn looks at the position of
Irish Americans as we embrace the new millennium.
By Tom Deignan About a month ago, if you’d asked me how things were going, I could only shrug. Busy, busy, busy. My day job as an English teacher sends me on an hour and 45 minute trek from New Jersey to Brooklyn - at a high school Mondays through Fridays, and a college on Saturdays. There’s also an after-school class wedged in there two days a week. I’ve found … [Read more...] about A Teacher Learns A Lesson
The awarding-winning writer Alice McDermott and Pittsburgh business leader Jim Rooney were honored at the annual Glucksman Ireland House NYU Gala on February 28. Some 300 gathered to toast the honorees at a cocktail reception followed by a seated dinner with presentations of the Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters to McDermott and the Lewis L. Glucksman Award for … [Read more...] about NYU Glucksman Ireland House Gala Honors
Irish authors have also been having a couple of good months in Hollywood.
Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin recently snatched up the movie rights for The Ninth Hour, Alice McDermott’s excellent recent novel. The Ninth Hour depicts the moments of grace and labor that fill up the lives of various mid-century Brooklyn nuns. The book’s action is set in motion by a tragedy … [Read more...] about Irish Eye in Hollywood:
Novel Adaptations for Irish Writers
