Colum McCann

Colum McCann was born in Dublin and began his career as a journalist in The Irish Press. He and his family now live in New York where he teaches in the Creative Writing programme in Hunter College. He is the author of two collections of short stories and three novels, including This Side of Brightness and Dancer, both international bestsellers. His novel, Zoli, is based on the true story of a Gypsy poet and intellectual and was published to great acclaim in Europe and the United States. With his latest work, Let the Great World Spin, McCann became the first Irishman to win the National Book Award in the United States. He is the recipient of numerous awards, among them a Pushcart Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Irish Independent Hughes and Hughes Novel of the Year 2003, and the 2002 Ireland Fund of Monaco Princess Grace Memorial Literary Award. His short film, Everything in this Country Must, directed by Gary McKendry, was nominated for an Oscar in 2005. Let the Great World Spin won the 2011 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, a prize worth €100,000. Colum McCann is a member of Aosdána.