Alice McDermott
Alice McDermott
Alice McDermottis an American writer and university professor. For her 1998 novel Charming Billy she won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth27 June 1953
CityBrooklyn, NY
CountryUnited States of America
both catholics raised
My parents were both first-generation Irish Catholics raised in Brooklyn.
bit bottle nonfiction poetry savor shot time whiskey
I read a little bit of nonfiction and a lot of poetry. I think of poetry as my shot of whiskey when I don't have time to savor a whole bottle of wine.
hand material readily
Being Irish-American myself, Irish-American material is readily at hand to me.
adjective jewish limiting noun russian whether
Any adjective you put before the noun 'writer' is going to be limiting in some way. Whether it's feminist writer, Jewish writer, Russian writer, or whatever.
meant pin
A perfect poem you can't pin down and say, 'This is exactly what it meant to me.' It's not a self-help manual.
catholic church gospels poetry ways
The language of the Catholic Church - the liturgy, the prayer, the gospels - was in many ways my first poetry.
homes
I know Irish-American people. I know what their homes look like. I know what they have for dinner. I know how they turn a phrase.
I have not won far more awards than I have won.
books spend takes tend time whatever work
I'm writing all the time. I tend to work on at least two books simultaneously. I'll spend time with one, and then I'll spend time with the other. Finishing takes whatever time it takes.
drawn
I'm not usually drawn to memoir - many run the risk of self-aggrandizement or score-settling.
convince editorial
I'm a novelist. I'm not a crusader, and I'm not an editorial writer. And I'm not writing fiction to convince anybody of anything.
far happening inside intriguing particular plot
Character is primary. What happens as far as plot and events is not as intriguing to me as what's happening inside this particular person.
call catholic defender faith remains search theologian valuable
I am not a theologian or a historian, and I feel no call to become a defender of the faith, so in my case, the search for what remains valuable focuses on language itself: Catholic prayer, ritual, the naming of things.
plot
I don't want to write about violence, and I don't want to hang a plot on a murder. I think it's cheap.