Richard McCann Prof Emeritus Literature

Degrees: PhD, American Studies University of Iowa<br> MA, American Studies, University of Iowa<br> MA, Creative Writing and Modern Literature, Hollins College<br> BA, English, Virginia Commmonwealth University
Languages Spoken: Conversational German; elementary French and Swedish
Favorite Spot on Campus: Katzen Arts Center
Bio: Professor McCann is the author, most recently, of Mother of Sorrows (Vintage, 2006), a collection of linked stories that Michael Cunningham has described as 'almost unbearably beautiful'; He is also the author of Ghost Letters (1994 Beatrice Hawley Award, 1994 Capricorn Poetry Award), a collection of poems, and the editor (with Michael Klein) of Things Shaped in Passing: More 'Poets for Life' Writing from the Aids Pandemic. His worked has appeared in such magazines as The Atlantic, Esquire, Ms., and Tin House, and in numerous anthologies, including The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 and Best American Essays 2000. For his work, he has received awards and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, The MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. McCann, who was named the 2005 AU Scholar-Teacher of the Year, serves on the Board of Trustees of the Fine Arts Work Center and the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. For more information, please visit his Web site.

See Also: Richard McCann's website; MFA Program in Creative Writing; Literature Department; Corporation of Yaddo; PEN/Faulkner Foundation
For the Media: To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.; AU Experts

Partnerships & Affiliations

O. Henry Prize Story Award (for "The Diarist"), 2007
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, 2005-2006
AU Presidential Research Fellowship, 2005-2006
American University Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award, 2005
John C. Zacharis Book Prize (for Mother of Sorrows), 2006
ALA Stonewall Honor Book Award (for Mother of Sorrows), 2006
Finalist, Lambda Literary Award, 2006
Christopher Isherwood Fellowship, 2005-2009
D.C. Commission on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship: 2002, 2000, 1998, 1995, 1991
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1995
Capricorn Poetry Award (for Ghost Letters), 1994
Beatrice Hawley Book Award (for Ghost Letters)
Stanley Kunitz Fellow, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, 1993
Fulbright Senior Fellowship, Göteborgs Univesitet, Sweden, 1982-83
Rockefeller Fellowship in American Film/American Civilization, University of Iowa, 1974-76

Paperback edition: Vintage Books, 2006

French edition: La mére des chagrins, Édition-des-Deux Terres (Paris), 2006

Italian edition: La madre di tutti i doloir, Playbround Libri (Rome), 2007

Things Shaped in Passing: More 'Poets for Life' Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. Ed. with Michael
Klein. New York; Persea Books, 1997.
Ghost Letters. Farmington, Maine: 1994
Nights of 1990. Harrisburg: Warm Spring Press, 1994
Dream of the Traveler. Ithaca, NY: Ithaca House, 1976

Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyra Beach, FL, May-June 2010
Numerous residency fellowships between 1984 and 2009 at Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Blue Montain Center, and the DJerassi Foundation.