In this excerpt from his memoir The Good Sport, Kevin White takes us on his journey as an Irish Catholic kid growing up in “blue-collar” Amityville on Long Island while scrambling to help his parents make ends meet, to the position of “the best of the best” among intercollegiate athletic directors of his generation. Navigating the winding roads, with endless rotaries, up to … [Read more...] about “The Good Sport”
Books
An Interview with T. J English
Tom Deignan
IA Newsletter October 22, 2022
IA Newsletter October 22, 2022
Having spent decades writing about crooks and killers, what seedy corner of America’s immigrant underworld could best-selling author TJ English explore next? Jazz, of course! OK, this might seem like a strange fit. In books like The Westies and Where the Bodies are Buried, English took a close look at ruthless Irish American gangsters from Hell’s Kitchen to South Boston. Then … [Read more...] about An Interview with T. J English
Summer Reading
By Darina Molloy
Snowflake By Louise Nealon There’s been a huge buzz about Louise Nealon ever since word of her debut novel was announced, with many reviewers and critics calling her the next Sally Rooney. Maybe they should all leave the Mayo writer to be the current and next Sally Rooney, however, and come up with different descriptors for almost every other Irish female writer under 30. … [Read more...] about Summer Reading
Spending Time With Alice
By Tom Deignan
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 almost … [Read more...] about Spending Time With Alice
The 10th Annual Tom Quinlan Poetry Lecture Featuring Paul Muldoon
IA Newsletter November 13, 2021
Poet Paul Muldoon is even busier than usual. Earlier this month he was in London to help launch Paul McCartney’s memoir, “The Lyrics”… an instant bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. Muldoon interviewed The Beatle for five years then edited the beautiful two volume boxed set. Muldoon, a Pulitzer prize-winning poet and Princeton professor once again organized the Princeton … [Read more...] about The 10th Annual Tom Quinlan Poetry Lecture Featuring Paul Muldoon