Alice McDermott is a celebrated American writer and university professor. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she has a rich academic history, having attended St. Boniface School in Elmont, Long Island, and Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead, NY. She earned her BA from the State University of New York at Oswego in 1975 and furthered her education by obtaining an MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1978.

McDermott's teaching career is equally distinguished, with positions at UCSD, American University, and as a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg and Hollins Colleges in Virginia. She was also a lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire. Her work extends beyond the classroom, with her short stories gracing the pages of publications such as Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, and Seventeen.

Her literary prowess has earned her an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction for her novel Charming Billy in 1998. McDermott is a three-time Pulitzer Prize for Fiction nominee and the 1987 recipient of a Whiting Writers Award. She currently holds the Richard A. Macksey Professorship of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University.