Alice McDermott
A novelist of profound empathy who chronicles the quiet triumphs and tragedies within Irish-American Catholic families.
Born 1953 (age 73)·American writer, novelist, essayist·Birthday: June 27·Baby Boomers
Biography
Alice McDermott’s fiction exists in a meticulously observed world, often mid-century Long Island or Brooklyn, where the rhythms of faith, family, and memory dictate the terms of life. She writes not of grand historical events, but of the seismic shifts that occur around kitchen tables and in parish halls—a marriage, a death, a loss of faith, a moment of grace. Her prose is precise, luminous, and deceptively simple, building emotional power through accumulated detail and resonant silence. Winning the National Book Award for 'Charming Billy,' a novel centered on the aftermath of a man’s death, confirmed her unique gift for making the specific universal. As a longtime writing professor, she has also shaped generations of new voices. In novels like 'After This' and 'The Ninth Hour,' she continues to explore the ways people build meaning and community against the pull of doubt and despair, securing her place as a essential chronicler of the American interior life.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Alice was born in 1953, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Alice Was Born
The biggest hits of 1953
#1 Movie
Peter Pan
Best Picture
From Here to Eternity
#1 TV Show
I Love Lucy
Alice's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1953Born
DNA structure discovered by Watson and Crick
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $8,750Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Song from Moulin Rouge" — Percy FaithBest Picture: From Here to Eternity
1958Started school
NASA founded
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $11,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Volare" — Domenico ModugnoBest Picture: Gigi
1966Became a teenager
Star Trek premieres on television
Gas: $0.32/galHome: $14,200Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"The Ballad of the Green Berets" — SSgt Barry SadlerBest Picture: A Man for All Seasons
1969Could drive
Apollo 11: humans walk on the Moon; Woodstock festival
Gas: $0.35/galHome: $15,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Sugar, Sugar" — The ArchiesBest Picture: Midnight Cowboy
1971Could vote
Voting age lowered to 18 in the US
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $18,100Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Joy to the World" — Three Dog NightBest Picture: The French Connection
1974Turned 21
Nixon resigns the presidency
Gas: $0.53/galHome: $22,600Min wage: $2.00/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"The Way We Were" — Barbra StreisandBest Picture: The Godfather Part II
1983Turned 30
Internet adopts TCP/IP, creating the modern internet
Gas: $1.16/galHome: $57,700Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Every Breath You Take" — The PoliceBest Picture: Terms of Endearment
1993Turned 40
European Union officially established
Gas: $1.11/galHome: $86,600Min wage: $4.25/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"I Will Always Love You" — Whitney HoustonBest Picture: Schindler's List
2003Turned 50
US invades Iraq; Human Genome Project completed
Gas: $1.59/galHome: $146,000Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"In Da Club" — 50 CentBest Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2013Turned 60
Edward Snowden reveals NSA surveillance programs
Gas: $3.53/galHome: $152,800Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Thrift Shop" — Macklemore & Ryan LewisBest Picture: 12 Years a Slave
2023Turned 70
ChatGPT goes mainstream; Israel-Hamas war begins
Gas: $3.52/galHome: $361,600Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Joe Biden"Flowers" — Miley CyrusBest Picture: Oppenheimer
2026Age 73 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1998 for her novel 'Charming Billy.'
- Has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction three times ('That Night,' 'At Weddings and Wakes,' 'After This').
- Awarded the Corrington Award for Literature and the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award for her body of work.
- Has served as the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University, influencing many writers.
Did You Know?
She was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Elmont, Long Island, settings that deeply inform her novels.
Her novel 'Charming Billy' was a surprise bestseller, spending weeks on the New York Times list.
She has served on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
She earned her M.A. from the University of New Hampshire, where she studied with writers like Thomas Williams and Mark Smith.
“Memory, like consciousness, is a fact of the body; it is a knowledge in the muscles and the bones and the skin.”
