Colum McCann
Professor of Contemporary Literature and Writer-in-Residence at The European Graduate School / EGS.
Biography
Colum McCann (b. 1965) is an award-winning Irish author based in New York, where he teaches creative writing at City University of New York’s Hunter College. He has published six novels and three collections of stories, and has received numerous international honors, including the National Book Award and the Deauxville Festival Literary Prize for Let the Great World Spin (2009), membership in the Irish arts academy Aosdana, and being named a Chevalier des arts et lettres by the French government—an award rarely conferred on foreign writers; previous recipients have included Salman Rushdie and Julian Barnes.
Born and raised in Dublin, Colum McCann grew up in suburban house filled with books. His father was a journalist for the Irish Press newspaper group as well as a literary editor for a Dublin newspaper. McCann discovered his love of storytelling early on in grade school and followed in his father’s footsteps, graduating with a degree in journalism from the College of Commerce Rathmines (now the Dublin Institute of Technology) in 1982. For an assignment reporting on battered women in Dublin, he was named Young Journalist of the Year and triggered a debate of the issue in parliament. After working for various Irish newspapers and writing his own column in the Evening Press, Colum McCann moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1986, where he attempted to write the great Irish-American novel. Feeling that he lacked the necessary experience to do so, he embarked on an extensive bike ride across the country and then worked as a wilderness guide in a program for juvenile delinquents near Brenham, Texas. He subsequently earned a BA in history and English at the University of Texas at Austin. It was on a trip to New York where he met his wife, Allison. They were married in 1992 and moved to Japan, where she studied Japanese. McCann describes Japan as having “a good silence.” It was this silence that allowed him the space and time to finish his first collection of short stories, Fishing the Sloe-Black River (1994), which he had begun in Texas, and to begin working on his first novel, Songdogs (1995). The couple returned to New York in 1994, where they currently reside with their three children.
Colum McCann’s works include: Fishing the Sloe-Black River (1994); Songdogs(1995); This Side of Brightness (1998); Everything in This Country Must (2000); Dancer (2003); Zoli (2006); The World Unfurled (2008); the award-winning Let the Great World Spin (2009); TransAtlantic (2013); and Thirteen Ways of Looking (2015).
Following up on his early desire to write about the Irish-American experience, Colum McCann has explored this theme most extensively in Songdogs, This Side of Brightness, and in several stories in Fishing the Sloe-Black River. His first novel, Songdogs, chronicles the adventures of Conor Lyons who traces the travels of his Irish father through various family mementos. McCann’s collection of short stories, Fishing the Sloe-Black River, touches on themes of the Irish diaspora but also includes the story “A Basket Full of Wallpaper,” which tells of the trials of a Japanese immigrant living in an Irish community. All of these short stories treat themes of loss and remembrance, with each character encountering memory on their own terms. McCann’s mastery as storyteller can be seen in the differing accounts of what it entails to live a fractured life that nevertheless continues to be built through the everyday weaving of memory and experience. This Side of Brightness, McCann’s second novel, is a duet between two characters—Nathan Walker, a black man from Georgia who works digging the subway tunnels of New York City and finds solace and a unique equality underground, and Treefrog, a former skyscraper construction worker whose narrative takes place 75 years later but who finds the same solace in the tunnels.
While these tales of immigrants and the mixing of cultural experiences, memory, and remembrance are exemplars of the genre, Colum McCann has shown that he is not limited to these themes. His novel Dancer revolves around the biography of Rudolf Nureyev, the famous Russian ballet dancer. Here, McCann gives voice to the characters surrounding the ever-moving and ever-driven dancer. His next novel, Zoli,explores Roma culture in Eastern Europe. McCann spent a year researching the book in the New York Public Library and traveled to Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic to experience Gypsy culture first-hand. Moving beyond Western prejudices against the Roma, McCann wanted to tell the story of a people who have been largely enveloped in mystery, a situation that has largely come about due to a lack of documentation and their predominantly oral culture. By weaving threads of the past through to the present, McCann tells the story of a contemporary Gypsy girl based on the real-life story of the poet Papusza. In his second short story collection, Everything in This Country Must, Colum McCann turns towards the troubles of Northern Ireland. Over the course of a novella and two stories, he illustrates the tragedy of political strife through the voices of singular characters and traverses boundaries of culture and separation. Returning to New York for Let the Great World Spin, McCann tells the story of a tightrope walker who traversed the distance between the Twin Towers in 1974. Again, McCann weaves the story through multiple characters, exemplifying his talents as a master storyteller.
Colum McCann uses a method of intense research and personal experience to develop his complex, rich stories. He often spends hours in the New York Public Library (which he calls one of the world’s greatest institutions) and has traveled not only to Eastern Europe for Zoli, but to Russia for Dancer. In preparation for This Side of Brightness, he even lived with homeless tunnel dwellers in New York. It is from these preparatory periods that he is able to weave the threads of individual stories and create the rich backdrops of his novels. As for the architecture of his stories, McCann admits that he flies by the seat of his pants and that the structure comes later. While he finds a story’s form important, he doesn’t feel that it should be mathematical. Rather, it should lead to an open question so that the reader can take part in the creation of the story.
Works
Books
Articles
But Always Meeting Ourselves
McCann, Colum. “But Always Meeting Ourselves.” The New Yorker, June 15, 2009.
Wir sind Glühwürmchen
McCann, Colum. “Wir sind Glühwürmchen.” Die Ziet, 2009.
In uns allen brennt es noch
McCann, Colum. “In uns allen brennt es noch.” Die Ziet, September 21, 2009.
Better world for our children does not have to be a fiction
McCann, Colum. “Better world for our children does not have to be a fiction.” The Independent, January 21, 2009.
My Week: Colum McCann
McCann, Colum. “My Week: Colum McCann.” Times Online, January 17, 2009.
Sarajevo : How with This rage Shall Beauty Hold a Plea?
McCann, Colum. “Sarajevo : How with This rage Shall Beauty Hold a Plea?” ColumMcCann.com, October 15, 2008.
Phreak
McCann, Colum. “Phreak.” Paris Review 186, Fall (2008).
Destination: Gypsy Europe
McCann, Colum. “Destination: Gypsy Europe.” Salon, January 10, 2007.
Der Krieg ist vorbei
McCann, Colum. “Der Krieg ist vorbei.” Translated by Brigitte Jakobeit. Die Ziet,March 12, 2007.
Gypsies put EU to the test
McCann, Colum. “Gypsies put EU to the test.” Boston News, January 9, 2007.
Sounds of Silence in Northern Ireland
McCann, Colum. “Sounds of Silence in Northern Ireland.” The New York Times, May 8, 2007.
No Place Like Home
McCann, Colum. “No Place Like Home.” The New York Times, December 31, 2006.
Der Staub zwischen seinen Zähnen
McCann, Colum. “Der Staub zwischen seinen Zähnen,.” Die Ziet, November 3, 2006.
Burning From the Inside Out
McCann, Colum. “Burning From the Inside Out.” Pen, September 10, 2006.
Die IRA: goodbye to all that
McCann, Colum. “Die IRA: goodbye to all that.” Kursbuch 162 (2005): 14.
Everything in This Country Must – A short story
McCann, Colum. “Everything in This Country Must – A short story.” The Atlantic, July 1998.
I Am Here to Live Out Loud: In defense of the social novel: an essay on Emile Zola
McCann, Colum. “I Am Here to Live Out Loud: In defense of the social novel: an essay on Emile Zola.” ColumMcCann.com. No Date.
Interviews
Aleksander Hemon in Conversation with Colum McCann
McCann, Colum, and Aleksander Hemon. “Aleksander Hemon in Conversation with Colum McCann.” The Believer, January 2010.
Colum McCann on high-wire acts, writing and 9/11
McCann, Colum, and Jacket Copy. “Colum McCann on high-wire acts, writing and 9/11.” L.A. Times, November 10, 2009.
Novelist Colum McCann on Let the Great World Spin and the 9/11 ‘Grief Machine’
McCann, Colum. “Novelist Colum McCann on Let the Great World Spin and the 9/11 ‘Grief Machine’.” New York Magazine, June 23, 2
Interview: Let the Great World Spin
McCann, Colum, and Rosyln Berstein. “Interview: Let the Great World Spin.” Buzz Zine, 2009.
Haute voltige
McCann Colum, and Sophie Lebeuf. “Haute voltige.” Evene.fr, September 2009.
A Conversation with Colum McCann
McCann, Colum, and Farah Miller. “A Conversation with Colum McCann.” Oprah Magazine, July 16, 2009.
Colum McCann: Let the Great World Spin
McCann, Colum, and Bret Anthony Johnston. “Colum McCann: Let the Great World Spin.” National Book Award, 2009.
Interview
McCann, Colum, and Dylan Foley. “Interview.” The Rumpus, June 17, 2009.
Adventures in the Skin Trade
McCann, Colum, and Michael Ondaatje. “Adventures in the Skin Trade.” PEN World Voices festival, 2008.
Interview
McCann, Colum, and Robert Birnbaum. “Interview.” The Morning News, May 3, 2007.
Interview
McCann, Colum, and Declan Meade, “Interview.” Stinging Fly Magazine, 2003
Colum McCann: Author of Dancer talks with Robert Birnbaum
McCann, Colum, and Robert Birnbaum, “Colum McCann: Author of Dancer talks with Robert Birnbaum.” Identity Theory, February 25, 2003.
Some Strange Vessel
McCann, Colum. “Some Strange Vessel.” The Atlantic, July 16, 1998.