McCann is the author of Mother of Sorrows (2006), a collection of linked stories that won the 2005 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares; and three books of poems: Ghost Letters (1994), winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award and the Capricorn Poetry Award, Nights of 1990 (1994), and Dream of the Traveler (1976). He co-edited the anthology Things Shaped in Passing: More ‘Poets for Life’ Writing from the AIDS Pandemic with Michael Klein (1997). Longtime professor of creative writing at American University, he was awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. McCann served on the boards of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Yaddo, and the Fine Arts Work Center.
McCann grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and earned a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. He taught at William and Mary University, prior to joining the faculty at American University. At the time of his death, he was working on a series of nonfiction essays about his experiences as a liver transplant recipient.
The Homes
