Alice McDermott
Born	(1953-06-27) June 27, 1953 (age 71) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist, essayist
Education	State University of New York, Oswego (BA) University of New Hampshire (MA)
Genre	Literary fiction
Website
www.alice-mcdermott.com

Alice McDermott (born June 27, 1953) is an American writer and university professor. She is the author of nine novels and a collection of essays. For her 1998 novel Charming Billy she won an American Book Award^[1] and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction^[2] and was a finalist for the International Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize. That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent novel, Absolution was awarded the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.

From 2002 to 2019, McDermott was the Johns Hopkins University's Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities.

McDermott was born in Brooklyn, New York. She attended St. Boniface School in Elmont, New York, on Long Island (1967), Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead (1971), and the State University of New York at Oswego, receiving her BA in 1975, and received her MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1978.

She is the recipient of several honorary degrees including Boston College, Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, University of New Hampshire, SUNY Oswego, Mount St. Mary's University, La Salle University, Regis College, The College of the Holly Cross.

She has taught at UCSD and American University, has been a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg College and Hollins College in Virginia, and was lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire. In 2012 she was the D'Angelo Scholar-in-Residence, St. John's University. From 2002 to 2019, McDermott was the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. For two decades McDermott served on the faculty of Sewanee Writers Conference. Her short stories have appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Commonweal, The Sewanee Review, Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, The New Yorker, Good Housekeeping, and Seventeen. She has also published articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

McDermott lives outside Washington, D.C., with her husband, a neuroscientist, and three grown children. She is Catholic, though she once deemed herself "not a very good Catholic."^[3]

• A Bigamist's Daughter, (1982) New York Times Notable Book of the Year

• That Night (1987) – Finalist for the National Book Award,^[4] the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Pulitzer Prize,^[5] and Los Angeles Times Book Prize. New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Film adaptation.
• At Weddings and Wakes (1992) – Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize,^[5] New York Times Notable Books of the Year.
• Charming Billy (1998) –New York Times Best Seller, winner of an American Book Award (1999)^[1] and the National Book Award.^[2] Finalist: International Dublin Literary Award; the Orange Prize. Best Books of the Year: Time Magazine, The Washington Post, and The San Francisco Chronicle. New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Stage Adaptation, The Round House Theater, Maryland.
• Child of My Heart: A Novel (2002) – Nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award. Book Best Books of the Year. New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

• After This (2006) – Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.^[5] Nominee: International Dublin Literary Award. Best Books of the Year: The Atlantic Monthly, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, NPR. New York Times Notable Books of the Year.
• Someone (2013) – Longlisted for the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction. Finalist for the International Dublin Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, Patterson Fiction Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Best Books of the Year: NPR, Barnes and Noble, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Kansas City Star, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Tampa Observer, New York Times Notable Books of the Year.

• 2018 – The Ninth Hour – New York Time Best Seller: Winner of the Prix Femina étranger for La Neuvième Heure, translation of The Ninth Hour. Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Kirkus Prize for Fiction; Semi-Finalist the Carnegie Medal for Fiction. Best Books of the Year: Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Library Journal, NPR, Kirkus Review, Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Barnes and Noble, New York Time Notable Book of the Year
• 2023 – Absolution: New York Time Best Seller. Winner Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. Shortlist: PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Barnes and Noble Book of the Month Club Selection. Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Kirkus Reviews, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Oprah Daily, Real Simple and Vogue.

• 1987 – Whiting Award

• 2004 – Gaudium Prize
• 2008 – Corrington Award for Literature.
• 2010 – Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence.
• 2013 – Inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.
• 2015 – Mary McCarthy Award, Bard College
• 2019 – Seamus Heaney Award for Literature, Glucksman Ireland House.
• 2024 – Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2024 – Recipient of the Eugene O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award.

• —— (1982). A Bigamist's Daughter. New York: Random House.
• —— (1987). That Night. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9781429929745.
• —— (1992). At Weddings and Wakes: A Novel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9781429929622.
• —— (1998). Charming Billy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9781429929707.
• —— (2002). Child of My Heart (paperback 1st ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9781408806678.
• —— (2006). After This. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780440337300.
• —— (2013). Someone. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374281090.
• —— (2017). The Ninth Hour: A Novel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374280147.
• —— (2023). Absolution: A Novel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374610487.^[6]

• —— (2021). What About the Baby?. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374130626.^[7][8]

• Official website
• Alice McDermott on Facebook
• Alice McDermott on Goodreads
• Biography at BookBrowse.com
• Bibliography at FantasticFiction
• Alice McDermott at Library of Congress Authorities — with 14 catalog records
• Alice McDermott, The Art of Fiction No. 244, Paris Review, Fall 2019

• Profile at Commonweal
• Profile at The Sewanee Review
• Profile at Whiting Foundation

• Profile at Book Marks
• Reviews by Kirkus
• After This Reviews at Metacritic