James McCourt (writer)
James McCourt (born 1941) is a gay[1] American-born writer and novelist who was raised in Ireland. McCourt has been with his life partner, novelist Vincent Virga,[2] since 1964 [3] after they met at Yale University when graduate students.[3]
Work
McCourt is best known for his extravagant novel Mawrdew Czgowchwz (1975), about a fictional opera diva, and his 2003 nonfiction book Queer Street, about gay life in New York City after World War II. His novel, Now Voyagers (2007), is the first in a series of projected sequels to Mawrdew Czgowchwz.
Acclaim
McCourt has garnered praise from critics Susan Sontag and Harold Bloom and has recently been championed by author Dennis Cooper. Sontag directed McCourt's first novel, Mawrdew Czgowchwz, to her publisher's attention,[2] while Bloom named a later work, Time Remaining to his influential Western Canon.[4] Mawrdew Czgowchwz was brought back in print in 2002 with a new introduction by Wayne Koestenbaum.
Bibliography
Fiction
- Mawrdew Czgowchwz (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975)
- Kaye Wayfaring in “Avenged” (stories) (Viking, 1985)
- Time Remaining (stories) (Knopf, 1993)
- Delancey's Way (Knopf, 2000)
- Wayfaring at Waverly in Silverlake (stories) (Knopf, 2002)
- Now Voyagers (Turtle Point Press, 2008)
Nonfiction
- Queer Street: Rise and Fall of an American Culture, 1947-1985 (W. W. Norton, 2003)
- Lasting City: The Anatomy of Nostalgia (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2013)
References
- ↑ Queer Street, pg. 5
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Foley, Dylan. The Advocate, March 5, 2002 Opera soap: author James McCourt enjoys the encore publication of the zany opera novel he wrote two decades ago
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.vincentvirga.com/ accessed April 14, 2009
- ↑ Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. Appendixes. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994. Chaotic Canon
External links
Critical
- Interview in Publishers Weekly about Now Voyagers
- A Diva Cruises Again New York Times review of Now Voyagers
- L.A. Times review of Now Voyagers
- The Seven Godlike Books of James McCourt feature on Dennis Cooper's blog
Interviews
- Review and interview on Queer Street in Time Out New York
- Bookworm: James McCourt interview on KCRW (1993)
- Bookworm: James McCourt interview on KCRW (2004)
- Bookworm: James McCourt interview on KCRW (2008)
Fiction
- The Canticle of Skoozle, a short story in Triple Canopy (online magazine)
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