Following in the footsteps of Irish literary giants like James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, and Oscar Wilde, many Irish Americans have added to the great literary works of the Western World.
Irish American writers have risen to achieve elite status as playwrights, poets, novelists, essayists and critics, and many Irish American writers are included on lists of the greatest writers in history. The following is a list of prominent Irish American writers throughout history.
Also See:
Irish American writers have risen to achieve elite status as playwrights, poets, novelists, essayists and critics, and many Irish American writers are included on lists of the greatest writers in history. The following is a list of prominent Irish American writers throughout history.
Also See:
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| Anne Rice |
Alan Dugan | Poet who won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Alice Fulton | Poet who won the 2002 Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry
Alice McDermott | Novelist who won the 1998 National Book Award and 1999 American Book Award
Anne Rice | Novelist who authored the bestselling Interview with a Vampire series
Bill Bryson | Travel writer who was awarded an honorary Order of the British Empire
Billy Collins | Poet who served two terms as Poet Laureate of the United States
Brigit Pegeen Kelly | Poet who was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Campbell McGrath | Poet and author of nine full-length collections of poetry
Charles Olson | Poet and critic who authored The Maximus Poems
Cormac McCarthy | Novelist and playwright who won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Dennis Lehane | Novelist who authored Mystic River
Edwin O'Connor | Novelist who won the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
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| Eugene O'Neill |
Eugene O'Neill | Playwright who won the 1936 Nobel Prize for Literature and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama four times
F. Scott Fitzgerald | Novelist who authored The Great Gatsby
Fanny Howe | Poet and novelist who won the 2001 Lenore Marshall
Flannery O'Connor | Prolific novelist and short story writer
Frank McCourt | Memoirist who won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Angela's Ashes
Frank O'Hara | Poet, art critic, and member of the New York School
Galway Kinnell | Poet who was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
George V. Higgins | Novelist and columnist known for best-selling crime novels
J. F. Powers | Novelist and short story writer who won the 1963 National Book Award
J. P. Donleavy | Novelist who authored one of the Modern Library's Best 20th Century Novels, The Ginger Man
James Laughlin | Poet who won the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award Lifetime Achievement Award
James McMichael | Poet who won the 1999 Arthur Rense Prize
James T. Farrell | Novelist who wrote the Studs Lonigan trilogy, named to the Modern Library's Best 20th Century Novels list
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| Jay McInerney |
Jay McInerney | Novelist and screenwriter who wrote Bright Lights, Big City
Jean Kerr | Author, playwright, and Tony Award winner
Jim Carroll | Author and poet who wrote The Basketball Diaries
Joe Connelly | Novelist who wrote Bringing out the Dead
John Berryman | Poet who co-founded the Confessional school of poetry
John Horne Burns | Novelist and travel writer who wrote The Gallery
John Kennedy Toole | Novelist who was posthumously awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for A Confederacy of Dunces
John Logan | Poet who won the 1982 Lenore Marshall
John O'Hara | Novelist who wrote one of the TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels, Appointment in Samarra
John Patrick Shanley | Playwright and screenwriter who won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Doubt: A Parable
Kate Chopin | Novelist and short story who wrote The Awakening
Kay Ryan | Poet who was named Poet Laureate of the United States
Kirby Doyle | Poet and novelist of the New American Poetry movement
Louise Bogan | Poet who served as Poet Laureate of the United States
Lucy Grealy | Poet and essayist who wrote Autobiography of a Face
Maile Meloy | Novelist and short story writer who won The Paris
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| Margaret Mitchell |
Margaret Mitchell | Novelist who won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Gone With The Wind
Marie Howe | Poet who won the 1987 Open Competition of the National Poetry Series
Mary Coyle Chase | Playwright and screenwriter who won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Mary Higgins Clark | Novelist who wrote bestselling suspense novels
Maureen Daly | Novelist and short story writer who authored the first young adult novel, Seventeenth Summer
Michael Connelly | Novelist who wrote the bestselling Harry Bosch detective series
Michael Lally | Poet and author who won an American Book Award in 2000
Michael Patrick MacDonald | Memoirist who won an American Book Award in 2000
Michael Ryan | Poet who won the 1990 Lenore Marshall
Michael Walsh | Novelist and screenwriter who won an American Book Award in 2004
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| Mickey Spillane |
Mickey Spillane | Novelist who wrote the bestselling Mike Hammer detective novels
Neal Cassady | Author and poet whose character Dean Moriarty was the inspiration for the Jack Kerouac novel On the Road
Nora Roberts | Novelist who became the first inductee into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame
Pat Conroy | Novelist and memoirist who wrote The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides
Pete Hamill | Columnist and editor for the New York Post and The New York Daily News, as well as novelist and short story writer
Philip Barry | Playwright who wrote The Philadelphia Story
R. A. Lafferty | Award-winning author of science fiction novels
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| Raymond Chandler |
Raymond Chandler | Novelist and short story writer who wrote the Philip Marlowe detective series
Richard Kenney | Award-winning poet and academic
Robert C O'Brien | Journalist and children's author who won the 1972 Newbery Medal
Robert Creeley | Poet and author who won the American Book Award Lifetime Achievement Award
Robert Fitzgerald | Poet and critic who served as Poet Laureate of the United States
Robert Kelly | Poet who won an American Book Award in 1980
Roger Zelazny | Author of science fiction and fantasy novels who won three Nebula Awards and six Hugo Awards
Susan Howe | Poet and literary critic who won American Book Awards in 1981 and 1986
T. Coraghessan Boyle | Novelist and short story writer who won the 1988 PEN/Faulkner Award
Ted Berrigan | Poet of the New York School
Terrence McNally | Playwright who won six Tony Awards and was nominated for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize
Thomas Flanagan | Novelist who won the 1979 National Book Critics Circle Award
Thomas Lynch | Poet and essayist who won an American Book Award in 1988
Thomas McGrath | Poet who won an American Book Award in 1984 and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in 1989
Thomas McGuane | Novelist and screenwriter who was nominated for a National Book Award
Tim O'Brien | Novelist and short story writer who was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award
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| Tom Clancy |
Tom Clancy | Novelist who wrote many bestselling novels, including The Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger
Vince Flynn | Novelist who wrote the bestselling Mitch Rapp series
William Kennedy | Novelist who won the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
William Logan | Poet and critic who won the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award
X. J. Kennedy | Poet who won the Lamont Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets