List of Irish Americans - List - Literature

Literature

• Philip Barry-playwright; author of The Philadelphia Story.
• Ted Berrigan-poet, part of the second generation of the New York School; author of The Sonnets.
• John Berryman-poet; one of the founders of the Confessional school of poetry.
• Louise Bogan-poet, translator, and critic; served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1945-1946.
• T. Coraghessan Boyle-novelist and short story writer; awarded the 1988 PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel World's End.
• John Horne Burns-novelist and travel writer; author of The Gallery.
• Bill Bryson-travel writer; awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to literature.
• Jim Carroll-author, poet, and punk musician; author of The Basketball Diaries.
• Neal Cassady-author and poet; provided the basis for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On The Road.
• Raymond Chandler-novelist and short story writer; author of the Philip Marlowe detective series that shaped the modern "private eye" story.
• Mary Coyle Chase-playwright and screenwriter; awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Harvey.
• Kate Chopin-novelist and short story writer; her novel The Awakening (1899) is considered a proto-feminist precursor to American modernism.
• Tom Clancy-novelist; author of many bestselling novels, including The Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger.
• Mary Higgins Clark-bestselling author of suspense novels.
• Billy Collins-poet; served two terms as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003.
• Joe Connelly-novelist; author of Bringing Out the Dead.
• Michael Connelly-crime novelist; author of the bestselling Harry Bosch detective series.
• Pat Conroy-novelist and memoirist; author of The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides.
• Robert Creeley-poet and author associated with the Black Mountain poets; awarded a 2000 American Book Award Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Maureen Daly-novelist and short story writer; her novel Seventeenth Summer (1942) is considered the first young adult novel.
• J.P. Donleavy-novelist; author of The Ginger Man, named on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels.
• Kirby Doyle-poet and novelist; associated with the New American Poetry movement and "third generation" American modernist poets.
• Alan Dugan-poet; winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his volume Poems.
• James T. Farrell-novelist; author of the Studs Lonigan trilogy, named on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald-novelist and short story writer; his novel The Great Gatsby was named on both the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels and the TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005 .
• Robert Fitzgerald-poet, critic, and translator; served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1984-1985.
• Thomas Flanagan-novelist and academic; winner of the 1979 National Book Critics Circle Award for The Year of the French.
• Vince Flynn-political thriller novelist; author of bestselling Mitch Rapp series.
• Alice Fulton-poet and short story writer; awarded the 2002 Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry for Felt.
• Tess Gallagher-poet, short story writer, essayist, and playwright.
• Lucy Grealy-poet, memoirist, and essayist; author of Autobiography of a Face.
• Pete Hamill-journalist, columnist, novelist, and short story writer.
• George V. Higgins-novelist, columnist, and academic; known for his best-selling crime novels, including The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
• Fanny Howe-poet, novelist, and short-story writer; awarded the 2001 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Selected Poems.
• Marie Howe-poet; winner of the 1987 Open Competition of the National Poetry Series for The Good Thief.
• Susan Howe-poet and literary critic; awarded American Book Awards in 1981 for The Liberties and 1986 for My Emily Dickinson.
• Brigit Pegeen Kelly-poet; finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for The Orchard.
• Robert Kelly-poet associated with the deep image group; awarded a 1980 American Book Award for In Time.
• William Kennedy-novelist and author, winner of the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Ironweed and a 1984 American Book Award for O Albany!.
• X. J. Kennedy-poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and children's author.
• Richard Kenney-poet and academic.
• Jean Kerr-author and Tony Award-winning playwright.
• Galway Kinnell-poet; awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and 1983 National Book Award for Poetry for Selected Poems.
• R. A. Lafferty-Hugo- and Nebula-nominated science fiction author.
• Michael Lally-poet and author; awarded a 2000 American Book Award for It's Not Nostalgia: Poetry and Prose.
• James Laughlin-poet and publisher; winner of the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award Lifetime Achievement Award and the 1992 National Book Awards Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters; namesake of the annual James Laughlin Award administered by the Academy of American Poets.
• Dennis Lehane-novelist, author of A Drink Before the War and Mystic River.
• John Logan-poet and academic; awarded the 1982 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Only the Dreamer Can Change the Dream.
• William Logan-poet, critic, and scholar; awarded the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism for The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin.
• Thomas Lynch-poet and essayist; awarded a 1998 American Book Award for The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade.
• Michael Patrick MacDonald-memoirist; winner of a 2000 American Book Award for All Souls: A Family Story From Southie.
• Cormac McCarthy-novelist and playwright; author of Blood Meridian and 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winner The Road.
• Frank McCourt-memoirist; winner of the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Angela's Ashes.
• Alice McDermott-novelist; awarded the 1998 National Book Award and a 1999 American Book Award for Charming Billy.
• Campbell McGrath-poet.
• Thomas McGrath-poet; awarded a 1984 American Book Award for Echoes Inside the Labyrinth and the 1989 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Selected Poems: 1938-1988.
• Thomas McGuane-novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer; nominated for a National Book Award for Ninety-Two in the Shade.
• Jay McInerney-novelist; author of Bright Lights, Big City.
• James McMichael-poet; awarded the 1999 Arthur Rense Prize.
• Terrence McNally-playwright; winner of six Tony Awards and nominated for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Perfect Ganesh.
• Maile Meloy-novelist and short story writer; awarded The Paris Review's 2001 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction for her story Aqua Boulevard.
• Margaret Mitchell-novelist; awarded the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Gone With The Wind.
• Helen Curtin Moskey-poet.
• Robert C. O'Brien-journalist and children's author; awarded the 1972 Newbery Medal for Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
• Tim O'Brien-novelist and short story writer; prominent author of fiction about the Vietnam War, including The Things They Carried, a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
• Edwin O'Connor-novelist, winner of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Edge of Sadness.
• Flannery O'Connor-novelist and short story writer; notable author in the Southern Gothic style.
• Frank O'Hara-poet, prominent member of the New York School.
• John O'Hara-novelist; author of Appointment in Samarra, named one of the TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005 .
• Charles Olson-poet and critic, associated with the second generation American Modernist poets; author of The Maximus Poems.
• Eugene O'Neill-playwright; awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize for Literature and four time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
• J.F. Powers-novelist and short story writer; winner of the 1963 National Book Award for Morte d'Urban.
• Anne Rice- horror novelist; author of bestselling Interview With A Vampire series.
• Nora Roberts-romance novelist; first inductee into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame.
• Kay Ryan-poet and academic; currents Poet Laureate of the United States.
• Michael Ryan-poet; awarded the 1990 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for God Hunger.
• John Patrick Shanley-playwright and screenwriter; winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Doubt: A Parable.
• Mickey Spillane-crime novelist; author of bestselling Mike Hammer detective novels.
• John Kennedy Toole-novelist; posthumously awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for A Confederacy of Dunces.
• Jim Tully - novelist, playwright, best known for Beggars of Life.
• Michael Walsh-novelist and screenwriter; awarded a 2004 American Book Award for And All The Saints.
• Roger Zelazny-fantasy and science fiction author; winner of three Nebula Awards and six Hugo Awards.