Peter Quinn, on right, with Dan Barry of the New York Times, left, and the Irish Arts Center's Aidan Connolly at this year's St. Patrick Day Parade in Manhattan.
PHOTO: VERA HOAR
By Irish Echo Staff
Essayist and novelist Peter Quinn will give the annual Frank McCourt Memorial Lecture on next Thursday afternoon, June 2, at the United Federation of Teachers headquarters, 52 Broadway, in Lower Manhattan. The annual event is hosted by the UFT’s Irish Committee and is supported and attended by members of the McCourt family. The free event begins at 4:30 and the lecture will be followed by a reception.
Quinn, who was chief speechwriter for Governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo, began his publishing career in 1994 with “Banished Children of Eve,” a novel set in post-Great Famine New York City. His other works are the Fintan Dunne detective trilogy “Hour of the Cat,” “The Man Who Never Returned” and “Dry Bones” and the essay collection “Looking for Jimmy: In Search of Irish America.”
Novelist Colum McCann wrote that Quinn “sits at the fireside of the American imagination. He can carve mystery out of mystery. The work is generous and agile and profound.”
The Bronx-born Quinn was presented with the 2015 Seamus Heaney Award at the Glucksman Ireland House NYU Annual Gala. His essays appear most often in the independent Catholic publication Commonweal. A recent review essay of Irish historian Roy Foster’s “Vivid Faces” in that magazine was included the New York Times weekly newsletter “What We're Reading,” a shortlist of articles recommended by its reporters.
Quinn retired as corporate editorial director of Time Warner in 2008. He and his wife, Kathleen Burbank Quinn, have two grown children.
Irish Writer Frank McCourt with Markree Castle County Sligo in the background. He spent the night there after a Round of Book Signings in Sligo town. 2/7/1997 Photo: RollingNews.ie
Frank McCourt. ROLLING NEWS.IE
Frank McCourt (1930-2009) was born in Brooklyn and raised in Limerick. He returned to America in his late teens and was drafted into the army. After education at New York University, courtesy of the GI Bill, he embarked on a career of teaching in New York City schools.
His first book, “Angela’s Ashes,” won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. He followed up with “’Tis” and “Teacher Man.”
For more details about the event contact the UFT Irish Committee’s Doris Meyer at dorismeyer@aol.com.
