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National Book Award winner to lecture, speak
to students
On Jan. 23, acclaimed fiction writer Alice McDermott will
receive an honorary degree at the College’s annual
Winter Convocation. The following day, McDermott is scheduled
to deliver a lecture on the themes of suffering and loss
in her work. She will also meet with members of the First-Year
Program.
The author of five acclaimed novels, McDermott has won critical
praise and a devoted readership with her deft perceptions
of love, family and faith. McDermott’s debut novel, A
Bigamist's Daughter (1982), announced the arrival of
an exciting new talent. Her follow-up book, That Night (1987),
was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer
Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. At
Weddings and Wakes (1992)—her third novel and
a New York Times bestseller—was called “a
haunting and masterly work of literary art,” by The
Wall Street Journal; Charming Billy (1998)
won the National Book Award. McDermott’s most recent
novel is Child of My Heart (2002).
McDermott received her bachelor’s degree from the
State University of New York at Oswego, and her master of
arts degree in writing from the University of New Hampshire.
In addition to having taught at the University of California-San
Diego and at American University, she has been a writer in
residence at Lynchburg and Hollins Colleges in Virginia and
at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore. The recipient
of a Whiting Writers Award, McDermott has had short stories
published in Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle and Seventeen magazines.
She and her husband, research neuroscientist David M. Armstrong,
have three children, Will, Patrick and Eames.
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