Richard John McCann (December 12, 1949 – January 24, 2021) was an American writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He lived in Washington, D.C., where he was a longtime professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at American University. As a teenager, he wrote to

Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television, and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympatheti ...

, whose work he greatly admired; they shared a correspondence which he recounted in a 2016 article in the ''Washington Post''.

Career

A gay writer, he was the author of ''Mother of Sorrows'', a collection of linked stories that novelist

Michael Cunningham Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel '' The Hours'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Cunningham is Professor in th ...

has described as "almost unbearably beautiful''."'' It won the 2005 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Bost ...

'' and was also an American Library Association

Stonewall Book Award The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience" in English-language books published in the U.S. They are sponsored by the Rainbo ...

recipient, as well as a finalist for the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

. Amazon named it one of the Top 50 Books of 2005. McCann's book of poems,
Ghost Letters
', won the 1994 Beatrice Hawley and Capricorn Poetry awards. With Michael Klein, he edited ''Things Shaped in Passing: More 'Poets for Life' Writing from the AIDS Pandemic''. His stories, poems, and essays have appeared in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'', ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'', ''

Ms. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...

'', ''

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. History Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer ...

'', ''

'', and numerous anthologies, including ''The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007'', ''Best American Essays 2000'', and ''The Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories.'' He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations and the Yaddo Corporation. In 2010, he was the Master Artist at The Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. McCann was the writer-in-residence at the Jenny McKean Moore program at George Washington University in 1987-88. He then became a professor of creative writing and director of the MFA program at American University in 1988, where he remained director until 2002, and continued to teach in the program until his retirement in 2017. He was known for his teaching of literary nonfiction and memoir. McCann received the AU Scholar-Teacher of the Year award in 2005, organized the MFA Visiting Writers series, and continued to teach his literary nonfiction course even after retirement McCann was associated with the town of

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Provi ...

, where he lived intermittently since the 1970s and where he served on the board of trustees of the

Fine Arts Work Center The Fine Arts Work Center is a non-profit enterprise that supports emerging visual artists and writers in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The Work Center was founded in 1968 by a group of American artists and writers to support promising individual ...

. He was twice a fellow at the Work Center, in 1972-1973 and in 1993-1994, and served on its board of trustees from 2000 to 2008. He also taught writing during the center’s summer program for many years. He also served on the board of directors of the

PEN/Faulkner Foundation The PEN/Faulkner Foundation (est. 1980) is an independent charitable arts foundation that supports the art of fiction and encourages readers of all ages. It accomplishes this through a number of programs, including its flagship PEN/Faulkner Aw ...

in Washington, D.C., and was a Member of the Corporation of Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York. The Pen/Faulkner Foundation announced his death on January 25, 2021, at the age of 71.

Career

References

External links