James McCourt (writer)

James McCourt (born July 4, 1941) is a gay American-born writer and novelist who was raised in Jackson Heights, Queens. McCourt has been with his life partner, novelist Vincent Virga, since 1964 after they met at Yale University as graduate students in the Yale School of Drama. McCourt's and Virga's papers are held at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Work

McCourt is best known for his extravagant novel Mawrdew Czgowchwz (1975), about a fictional opera diva, and his 2003 nonfiction book Queer Street, about gay life in New York City after World War II. His novel, Now Voyagers (2007), is the first in a series of projected sequels to Mawrdew Czgowchwz.

Acclaim

McCourt has garnered praise from critics Susan Sontag and Harold Bloom and has recently been championed by author Dennis Cooper. 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.