2012 D'Angelo Chair

Alice McDermott

A three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and National Book Award winner, author Alice McDermott has been named to the 2012 Peter and Margaret D’Angelo Endowed Chair for the Humanities at St. John’s University.

Ms. McDermott is the second person named to the Chair, which was established in 2007 by Peter P. D’Angelo ‘78MBA, ‘06HON, and Margaret La Rosa D’Angelo ‘70Ed. The Chair brings leading authors, researchers and scholars from various disciplines to St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the University’s oldest division.

As Chair, Ms. McDermott will serve as a faculty member in the English Department from March 19 to April 27, 2012. In addition to meeting with students and professors, she will teach an intensive fiction-writing workshop for qualified undergraduates and will deliver two public lectures.

A celebrated author, Ms. McDermott currently serves as the Richard A. Macksey Professor for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. Her latest novel, After This, was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. Her fifth novel, Child of My Heart, was a Book-of-the-Month Club main selection and was listed among Book Magazine’s “Ten Best Novels of 2002.”

Ms. McDermott’s novels include A Bigamist’s Daughter,  That Night — a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and  At Weddings and Wakes, also nominated for a Pulitzer. In addition, Charming Billy won the 1988 National Book Award as well as the American Book

Ms. McDermott also is the author of numerous articles and short stories, which have appeared in leading publications such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic and the New York Times.