Alice McDermott Reading

Fan-freakin’-tastic. Alice McDermott was the Morgan Writer in Residence for UNC this past year. She is Irish Catholic raised in Long Island, if that says anything. For those of you who thinks it says nothing, you’re WRONG. And she has written fantastic novels, like That Night, Charming Billy, At Weddings and Wakes She has been nominated for Pulitzer Prizes galore and won a National Book Award. If THAT’S not enough to earn your respect, she was raised three children while writing all these fantastic novels. And she came to hang out in Chapel Hill.

This is why I love Allen and Musette Morgan- they decided that money should be set aside specifically so that they could bring a writer to UNC every year. They live in Memphis and were unable to make the reading last night due to inclement weather, but that did not stop them from writing what I assume to be a pretty large check. Other Morgan writers include people like Richard Ford (whom I love love LOVE), Tobias Wolfe, and Joan Didion among the many. What a great opportunity for people to get up close and personal with the authors that make them laugh, cry and generally wish they were better people and possibly best selling novelists.

Alice McDermott was tiny, and had a very cute haircut. She stepped up to the podium, admitted that she had failed at finding anything that wasn’t about parents and their adolescent children. So she read us a short story called “Other Girl”. And it was riveting and brilliant and her voice had a lilt that wasn’t Yankee at all, instead melodious and relaxing. Listening to her was to visualize a mother-daughter relationship to hear the truth about suburban kids going crazy and overdosing on drugs and dealing with depression and wanting everything pierced.

It was fantastic. I have no idea where that story is published but I certianly intend to find out. And i am inspired after a long dry spell.