NOVELIST COLUM McCann became the first Irish person to win one of America's most prestigious literary awards on Wednesday night. McCann's Let the Great World Spinwas announced as the winner of the National Book Award for fiction at a gala dinner in Manhattan.
Previous winners include giants of the American literary scene such as William Faulkner, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow and John Updike. McCann dedicated his victory to another Irish author, Frank McCourt, who died in July. “I think he’s dancing upstairs,” he said.
Let the Great World Spinuses Philippe Petit's famous high-wire crossing between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in 1974 as a motif around which to assemble the stories of 10 New York characters.
The judges said McCann “offers through his generosity of spirt and lyrical gifts an ecstatic vision of the human courage required to stay aloft above the ever-yawning abyss”. The National Book Awards are in their 60th year, and the fiction prize is generally seen as having the most cachet. The stated purpose of the awards is “to celebrate the best of American literature”. To be eligible for consideration, a book must have been published by a US publisher and its author must be an American citizen. Niall Burgess, Ireland’s Consul-General in New York and a personal friend of McCann, said it was an example of Irish success in America, not just on the “ethnic” fringe, but within the larger culture. “What Colum McCann, an Irish writer, has done, is write the great American novel,” Mr Burgess said. “This award shows that the best of our artists and writers are absolutely mainstream in America.”
McCann was born and raised in Dublin, but has lived in the US since 1994. He attended St Brigid’s National School in Foxrock, Co Dublin, and Clonkeen College in Deansgrange.
His father, Sean, was a journalist for the Irish Press group and McCann studied journalism at Rathmines College of Commerce, going on to work for the Connaught Telegraph and the Evening Press.
Steven Carroll adds: Warm tributes were paid to Colum McCann in Ireland. Minister for Arts Martin Cullen said the award recognised Mr McCann’s immense talent, and “the individual creative success of modern Irish writers like Colum McCann continues to make an enormous contribution to cultural life both at home and abroad”.
The Arts Council said the novel was bold, brave and beautifully written.