Colum McCann facts for kids

Colum McCann (born February 28, 1965) is an Irish writer. He writes literary fiction, which means his stories focus on characters and themes rather than just plot. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, and now lives in New York.

McCann is known around the world for his belief in the "democracy of storytelling." This means he thinks everyone's story is important. He has won many awards, including the U.S. National Book Award and the International Dublin Literary Award. His books have been printed in over 40 languages. He also helped start Narrative 4, a group that teaches empathy through stories.

He has written seven novels. Some of his well-known books include Apeirogon (published in 2020), TransAtlantic (published in 2013), and Let the Great World Spin (published in 2009), which won the National Book Award. His book American Mother was released in March 2024. His latest novel, Twist, was released in March 2025.

Early Life and Education

Growing Up in Ireland

Colum McCann's mother came from Derry in Northern Ireland. He spent his summers there with his family. His father, Sean McCann, worked as a features editor for a newspaper in Dublin. He was also a writer himself. Colum remembers watching his father work in the newsroom.

McCann started writing when he was just eleven years old. He would ride his bike around Dun Laoghaire and report on local football games for a newspaper called The Irish Press.

Becoming a Journalist

Even though his father told him not to become a journalist, McCann started his career writing for newspapers. He studied journalism at a college in Dublin. While in school, he wrote for several newspapers. In 1983, he was named "Young Journalist of the Year." McCann says that working in newspapers helped him a lot before he started writing fiction.

Writing Career

Moving to the United States

In the summer of 1986, McCann moved to the United States. He wanted to become a fiction writer. He first lived in Hyannis, Massachusetts, where he worked on a golf course and as a taxi driver. He tried to write a novel that summer, but he soon realized he needed more life experience.

Between 1986 and 1988, he rode his bicycle across the United States. He traveled about 12,000 kilometers (or 8,000 miles). He said the trip helped him "expand my lungs emotionally." He wanted to meet many different kinds of people.

During his trip, he stayed with Native Americans in Gallup, New Mexico. He also lived with Amish people in Pennsylvania. He fixed bikes in Colorado and helped dig ditches to fight fires in Idaho. He found that people would share their deepest secrets with him, even if they had just met. He believes this trip helped him learn to listen to others.

In 1988, he moved to Brenham, Texas. There, he worked with young people who were facing challenges. He finished his college education at the University of Texas at Austin. A story he wrote for a campus magazine was later included in a collection called Best Short Stories of 1993 in Britain. This was an early success for him.

First Books and Plays

In 1993, McCann moved to Japan with his wife, Allison. They both taught English. McCann worked on his first collection of short stories, Fishing the Sloe-Black River. He also started his first novel, Songdogs. After a year and a half, they moved back to New York City. He, his wife, and their three children still live there.

In 1994, after Fishing the Sloe-Black River was published, McCann won the Rooney Prize. This award is given to a talented Irish writer under forty.

Even though his early books received good reviews, they didn't earn enough money for him to write full-time. So, during the 1990s, McCann also wrote plays and movie scripts. This included the film When the Sky Falls and a play called Flaherty's Windows.

Becoming a Successful Novelist

This Side of Brightness (published in 1998) was McCann's first book to become a bestseller around the world. The story is about the New York City Subway. It follows the "sandhogs" who built the tunnels in the early 1900s. It also tells about homeless people who lived in the tunnels in the 1980s. McCann spent a lot of time researching the novel. He went down into the subway tunnels often.

In 2000, McCann released Everything in This Country Must. This book has two short stories and a novella (a short novel) about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. McCann worked with Gary McKendry to turn the main story into a short film. This film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2004.

McCann's next novel, Dancer, is a fictional story about the life of famous ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. McCann spent time in Russia in 2001 to research the book.

For his 2006 novel Zoli, McCann explored themes like being exiled and feeling like an outsider. The main character is based on a real Polish-Romani poet. McCann spent two months visiting Romani camps in Europe to research this novel.

Let the Great World Spin and Global Fame

McCann's fifth novel, Let the Great World Spin (published in 2008), made him famous worldwide. The story takes place on August 7, 1974. This was the morning that Philippe Petit walked on a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The novel follows different characters in New York who saw Petit's amazing walk.

The book was very popular with critics. McCann won the 2009 National Book Award for Fiction for it. He was the first Irish-born writer to win this award. The novel also won the 2011 International Dublin Literary Award.

Writing in the 2010s

In 2010, McCann worked with Alonzo King on a ballet called Writing Ground. McCann's poetry was part of the ballet's program.

In 2013, McCann published his eighth book, TransAtlantic. This novel, like many of his others, uses different characters and voices to tell a story based on real events. It tells the stories of the first non-stop transatlantic fliers in 1919, Frederick Douglass's visit to Ireland in 1845, and the Irish peace process in 1998.

In the summer of 2014, McCann was attacked in New Haven, Connecticut. He was trying to help a woman who was being beaten. He had already started writing his next short story collection, Thirteen Ways of Looking, before this happened. The book includes a story about an on-street attack, which he wrote before his own experience. Thirteen Ways of Looking was released in October 2015 and won a Pushcart Prize.

Throughout 2016, McCann wrote a blog post each week with advice for young writers. These posts were later collected into a book called Letters to a Young Writer, published in 2017.

In 2019, McCann returned to writing plays. He worked on Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom. This one-woman show is based on James Joyce's novel Ulysses.

2020s: Apeirogon and Recent Works

In the late 2010s, McCann traveled to the Middle East. He started working on his novel, Apeirogon. He said he wanted to write a novel that offered a "two-story solution" instead of a "two-state solution." The book, published in February 2020, tells the story of two men—one Israeli and one Palestinian. Both of their daughters died in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They met in a group called the Parents Circle, where parents who lost children due to the conflict can share their stories. McCann calls Apeirogon his "Narrative 4 novel" because it focuses on empathy and unexpected connections. Apeirogon was well-received and was long-listed for the Booker Prize.

His book, American Mother, was released in March 2024. It tells the story of Diane Foley. Her son, James Foley, was a freelance reporter who was captured and killed in Syria. McCann was deeply affected when he saw a photo of James Foley reading his book, Let the Great World Spin, before he died.

His next novel, Twist, was released in March 2025.

Awards and Recognition

Colum McCann is known as a writer who believes in the "democracy of storytelling." His books have been published in over 40 languages. His writing has appeared in famous magazines like The New York Times, New Yorker, and Esquire.

He has received many awards, including the U.S. National Book Award and the International Dublin Literary Award. He also received an Oscar nomination for the short film based on his story.

In 2009, McCann won the National Book Award for Let The Great World Spin. That same year, the French government honored him as a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. He has also won several other awards in Europe.

In 2010, Let the Great World Spin was named "Book of the Year" by Amazon.com. McCann also received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010. In 2011, he won the International Dublin Literary Award for Let the Great World Spin. This is one of the most valuable literary awards in the world.

He has received honorary degrees from the Dublin Institute of Technology (2012) and Queen's University, Belfast (2013). His novel Transatlantic was long-listed for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. In 2016, he was a finalist for The Story Prize for Thirteen Ways of Looking. In 2020, Apeirogon was also long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

Helping Others: Philanthropy

McCann is involved with several charities in New York and Ireland. These include PEN, the American Ireland Fund, and the New York Public Library.

Narrative 4

In June 2012, Colum McCann helped start Narrative 4. This is a global nonprofit organization. He is still the president of its board. Narrative 4's goal is to use the power of stories to help young people improve their lives and communities. McCann describes it as "a United Nations for young storytellers." He believes that storytelling is a true democracy because everyone has a story to tell.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012, two teachers wrote to McCann. They thought his book Let The Great World Spin could help their students deal with their sadness. In early 2013, McCann sent them 68 copies of his book. He also visited the students in Newtown.

From this, Newtown High School started a "story exchange" with 180 students. They also exchanged stories with students from a school in Chicago. One of the teachers said that through the story exchange, "kids find out they have the same hopes and fears" no matter where they come from.

McCann sees the story exchange, and his writing, as a way to bring hope into the world. He told the Newtown High School students, "You have to beat the cynics at their own game."

The main activity of Narrative 4 is the story exchange. In this activity, groups break into pairs. Each person tells the other a story about themselves. Then, they go back to the larger group and tell the other person's story as if it happened to them. McCann says that people often think they don't have a story, but he believes everyone does. Studies have shown that the story exchange helps people feel more empathy and encourages them to do good things.

Narrative 4 works in schools and communities around the world. They encourage young people to share their stories. McCann has said he always wanted to do more than just write words on a page. He wanted to use writing to connect with people on a deeper level. Narrative 4 has offices in New York and Limerick, Ireland.

Personal Life

Colum McCann has three children with his wife, Allison.

He has written about his father, who was also a journalist. He also wrote about his grandfather, whom he only met once. McCann found a way to connect with his grandfather through the pages of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. He wrote, "The man whom I had met only once was becoming flesh and blood through the pages of a fiction."