Richard McCann
{{Short description|American writer and academic (1949–2021)}}
{{More citations needed|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Richard McCann
| image = Richard McCann 1272037.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1949|12|12}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|01|25|1949|12|12}}
| death_place = Washington, D.C.
| occupation = Writer, professor
| education = MA in Creative Writing and Modern Literature, Hollins University. MA and PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa
| alma_mater = Iowa
| period = 20th & 21st centuries
| genre = Poetry, Nonfiction, Gay literature Memoir
| subject =
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| spouse =
| partner =
| awards = Guggenheim, Fulbright, Rockefeller, NEA
| signature =
| website =
| portaldisp = Literature33
}}
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, whose work he greatly admired; they shared a correspondence which he recounted in a 2016 article in the Washington Post.{{Cite news |last=McCann |first=Richard |date=2016-03-31 |title=His correspondence with Bette Davis gave him strength, until it didn't |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/his-correspondence-with-bette-davis-gave-him-strength-until-it-didnt/2016/03/30/0cc9a916-da7b-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html |access-date=2022-07-28 |issn=0190-8286}}
Career
A gay writer,{{cite web |title=Revealing rhymes: once poets veiled their feelings in code; now their poetry speaks volumes about their lives |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_n758/ai_20584714 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050113072227/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_n758/ai_20584714 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2005-01-13 |work=The Advocate |date=1998-04-28 |first=John |last=Weir |accessdate=2007-06-06 }} he was the author of Mother of Sorrows, a collection of linked stories that novelist Michael Cunningham has described as "almost unbearably beautiful."{{Cite web |last=Cunningham |first=Michael (in Praise section) |title=Mother of Sorrows |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/110446/mother-of-sorrows-by-richard-mccann/ |access-date=June 11, 2025 |website=Penguin Random House}} It won the 2005 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares and was also an American Library Association Stonewall Book Award recipient, as well as a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Amazon named it one of the Top 50 Books of 2005.
McCann's book of poems, [https://www.alicejamesbooks.org/backlist/ghost-letters Ghost Letters], won the 1994 Beatrice Hawley and Capricorn Poetry awards.{{Cite news |last=Boggs |first=Nicholas |date=February 7, 2021 |title=What He Lived For: Remembering Richard McCann |url=https://lambdaliteraryreview.org/2021/02/richard-mccann/ |access-date=June 15, 2025 |work=Lambda Literary Review}} 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, Esquire, Ms., Tin House, Ploughshares, 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.{{Cite web |title=Jenny McKean Moore Professorship |url=https://english.columbian.gwu.edu/jenny-mckean-moore-professorship |website=The George Washington University, Department of English, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences}} 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{{Cite web |date=February 3, 2021 |title=Honoring Professor Emeritus Richard McCann |url=https://www.american.edu/cas/news/honoring-richard-mccann.cfm |access-date=June 15, 2025 |website=American University College of Arts and Sciences}}
McCann was associated with the town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he lived intermittently since the 1970s and where he served on the board of trustees of the Fine Arts Work Center. 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.{{Cite news |date=March 10, 2021 |title=Writer Richard McCann, 71, a Transformative and Adored Teacher |url=https://provincetownindependent.org/obituaries/2021/03/10/writer-richard-mccann-71-a-transformative-and-adored-teacher/ |access-date=June 15, 2025 |work=The Provincetown Independent}} 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 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.{{cite web |last1=Pen/Faulkner Foundation |title=Richard McCann |url=https://twitter.com/penfaulkner/status/1354111303091179520 |access-date=January 26, 2021}}
References
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External links
- [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4769070 "All Things Considered"] NPR interview
- [http://www.american.edu/cas/literature/mfa/index.cfm MFA Creative Writing program] at American University
- McCann's [https://web.archive.org/web/20090426002708/http://www.les-deux-terres.com/livre.php3?id_article=26 French publisher]
- McCann's [https://web.archive.org/web/20090126031331/http://playgroundlibri.it/libri.php?lid=27 Italian publisher]
- [https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/view?docId=ead/mss0616.xml Richard McCann papers] held by [https://library.udel.edu/special/ Special Collections, University of Delaware]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20201204143930/http://richardmccann.net/ Richard McCann website], archived at Wayback Machine, December 4, 2020
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Category:American humanities academics
Category:American short story writers
Category:Writers from Washington, D.C.
Category:American University faculty
Category:University of Iowa alumni