“Increasingly
I think of myself as some strange and solitary conductor, introduced to a group
of very dynamic musicians who happen to be my characters, and I have no idea
how they are going to play together, and I have certainly no idea how I am
going to put manners on them.” – Colum McCann
Born on this date in 1970, McCann is
a native Irishman who now makes his home in New York City where he is
Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing in the Master of Fine Arts program
at Hunter College.
His work has been published in 35
languages and has appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire,
and the Paris Review. McCann has written 6 novels,
including TransAtlantic and the National Book Award-winning Let the
Great World Spin. He also has
written 3 collections of short stories, including 2015’s Thirteen Ways of
Looking.
McCann said the best writers attempt
to become alternative historians. His own sense of the Great Depression, for example, is
guided by the works of E.L. Doctorow “In
a certain way, novelists become unacknowledged historians, because
we talk about small, tiny, little anonymous moments that won't necessarily make
it into the history books." 
“Every first thing is always a miracle," he said. “The first person you fall in love with. The first letter you receive. The first stone you throw. And in my conception of the novel, the letter becomes important. But what's more important is the fact that we need to continue to tell each other stories.”
“Every first thing is always a miracle," he said. “The first person you fall in love with. The first letter you receive. The first stone you throw. And in my conception of the novel, the letter becomes important. But what's more important is the fact that we need to continue to tell each other stories.”
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