Life

McCourt is openly gay. His life partner since 1964 is novelist Vincent Virga; they met in graduate school at Yale.

Work

McCourt is best known for his extravagant 1975 novel Mawrdew Czgowchwz, about a fictional opera diva, and his 2003 nonfiction book Queer Street, about gay life in New York City after World War II. His latest novel, Now Voyagers, is the first in a series of projected sequels to Mawrdew Czgowchwz.

Acclaim

McCourt has garnered praise from critics Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...

 and Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...

, and has recently been championed by author Dennis Cooper

Dennis Cooper

Dennis Cooper is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist.-Career:Cooper grew up the son of a wealthy businessman in Arcadia, California. His first forays into literature came early, focusing on imitations of Rimbaud, Verlaine, de Sade, and Baudelaire...

. Sontag directed McCourt's first novel, Mawrdew Czgowchwz, to her publisher's attention, while Bloom named a later work, Time Remaining to his influential Western Canon. Mawrdew Czgowchwz was brought back in print in 2002 with a new introduction by Wayne Koestenbaum

Wayne Koestenbaum

Wayne Koestenbaum is an American poet and cultural critic. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University...

.

External links

Critical

• Interview in Publishers Weekly about Now Voyagers
• A Diva Cruises Again New York Times review of Now Voyagers
• L.A. Times review of Now Voyagers
• The Seven Godlike Books of James McCourt feature on Dennis Cooper
  Dennis Cooper
  Dennis Cooper is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist.-Career:Cooper grew up the son of a wealthy businessman in Arcadia, California. His first forays into literature came early, focusing on imitations of Rimbaud, Verlaine, de Sade, and Baudelaire...
  
  's blog

Interviews

• Review and interview on Queer Street in Time Out New York
• Bookworm: James McCourt interview on KCRW (1993)
• Bookworm: James McCourt interview on KCRW (2004)
• Bookworm: James McCourt interview on KCRW (2008)

Fiction

• The Canticle of Skoozle, a short story in Triple Canopy (online magazine)
  Triple Canopy (online magazine)
  Triple Canopy is an online magazine, which was first published in 2008. In an effort to "slow down the Internet," the magazine curates and facilitates new media projects, which engage with the formal possibilities of the web. Its content ranges from art and literature to essays and critical theory...