For Immediate Release
Contact: Nicole Hernandez
Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Aspen Writers’ Foundation
970-925.3122, ext. 2# | Nicole@aspenwriters.org
National Book Award Recipient, Column McCann, Selected As
2010 Writer-in-Residence of the Aspen Writers’ Foundation
McCann to Appear at 34th Annual Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival, June 20-25
Aspen, CO, May 21, 2010 – The Aspen Writers’ Foundation (AWF) is pleased to announce that Colum McCann, this year’s National Book Award winner for fiction, has been selected as the 2010 AWF Writer-in-Residence. This year long residency was awarded to McCann for his outstanding literary achievements. As a Writer-in-Residence, McCann will participate in the 34th annual Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival at the Doerr-Hosier Center on the Aspen Meadows campus, June 20-25, as well as several AWF events throughout the year.
McCann will participate in the three following events during the Summer Words Festival:
Wednesday, June 23, 6:00 pm – Summer Benefit Dinner featuring John Wesley Harding’s variety show, Cabinet of Wonders, at a private home. This live performance is a unique, witty, and intimate compendium of crackling musical performances, robust storytelling, engaging repartee, and clever collaborations. Participants will include Colum McCann, Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses), Eugene Mirman (Flight of the Conchords), John Doe (of legendary punk band X), Nikky Finney, and many other literary-musical-comedic geniuses, not to mention surprises!
Tickets on sale now: $300 – available through the Aspen Writers’ Foundation by calling 970-925-3122 ext. 5# or going online to www.aspenwriters.org
Thursday, June 24, 7:00 pm – Public performance of the Cabinet of Wonders show at the Belly Up.
Tickets on sale now: $25/$28 day of – available through Belly Up Aspen by calling 970-544-9800 or by going online to bellyupaspen.com
Friday, June 25, 4:00 pm – Public event as part of the Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival: “Back by Popular Demand,” at the Doerr-Hosier Center. Fresh off his National Book Award win for Let the Great World Spin, author Colum McCann returns to the Aspen Writers’ Foundation a year after he launched his gold medal novel at Aspen Summer Words. This is a one-time engagement.
Tickets on sale June 1: $20/$15 student/educator – available through Aspen Show Tickets at the Wheeler Opera House by calling 970-920-5770 or 866-449-0464 or by going online to aspenshowtix.com.
Colum McCann is the Irish-born author of six novels, including his latest, Let The Great World Spin, which The New York Times called “one of the most electric, profound novels…in years.” The book, “the first great 9/11 novel” (Esquire Magazine), brought home the coveted National Book Award for fiction last November. The late Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish author of Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt, writes, “Now I worry about Colum McCann. What is he going to do after this blockbuster groundbreaking heartbreaking symphony of a novel? No novelist writing of New York has climbed higher, dived deeper.”
McCann is also the author of two collections of short stories and five other novels, including This Side of Brightness, Dancer, and Zoli, all of which were international bestsellers. His fiction has been published in 30 languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Paris Review, Bomb and more. He has written for numerous publications including the Irish Times, Die Zeit, La Republicca, Paris Match, the New York Times, The Guardian and The Independent. In May 2009, Colum was inducted into Aosdana, the equivalent of the Irish Academy, one of Ireland’s highest literary honors. Among his other awards are a Pushcart Prize, Rooney Prize, Hennessy Award for Irish Literature, Irish Independent Hughes and Hughes/Sunday Independent Novel of the Year, and the Ireland Fund of Monaco Princess Grace Memorial Literary Award. His short film, “Everything in this Country Must,” directed by Gary McKendry, was nominated for an Academy Award Oscar in 2005.
The Aspen Writers’ Foundation, Colorado’s oldest nonprofit literary organization and a program of the Aspen Institute, has been bringing readers and writers together since 1976. The organization’s mission is to provide programs that encourage writers in their craft and readers in their appreciation of literature. Through its repertoire of ten year-round programs and projects, the Aspen Writers’ Foundation annually serves 100,000-plus literary enthusiasts of all ages.
The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also has an international network of partners.
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