Depicting belief – believably – in a literary culture that views religion as a relic of the past.
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell teaches literature and creative writing at Fordham University and serves as associate director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies. Her poetry collection The View from Childhood (Paraclete Press) is forthcoming in 2026,
Posted inColumns
The Sacrament of Story
Writing can reveal our inmost thoughts, our private histories and, ultimately, our mystery.
Posted inArts & Culture, Columns
The Country of Mercy
Both Plath and O’Connor were painfully aware of the demands their craft made on them.
Posted inIn All Things
Let us Now Praise Famous (Irish)Men: A Tribute to Seamus Heaney
There are two kinds of people in the world those who are Irish and those who wish they were At least that rsquo s how the saying goes mdash and I rsquo ve heard it quite a few times since I married an Irishman a few decades ago Most of the time I dismiss such bon mots of Irish pride for the blar
Posted inIn All Things
Becoming Someone
Someone arrived on my doorstep last week A new novel by Alice McDermott winner of the National Book Award and three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize is always an event for literature enthusiasts in general and for Catholic book lovers in particular McDermott rsquo s novels transport her read
Posted inColumns
Finding Melville at Woodlawn
The language and rhythms of ‘Moby Dick’ are inscribed in my mind and have formed my imagination.
Posted inIn All Things
The Sacrament of Story & The Church of the Pub
The local pub has traditionally been regarded as sacred space in Irish culture Set apart from the arenas of ordinary life mdash the farm the fishing boat the office or place of business where one makes one rsquo s living and perhaps most significantly the home mdash the pub serves as a place a
Posted inIn All Things
Traveling Mercies
I have been on pilgrimage this spring and traveled with boon companions I rsquo ve kept late nights with Dorothy Day toted Thomas Merton on the train chuckled with Flannery O rsquo Connor over her tales of kindred freaks and got lost with Walker Percy in the cosmos They rsquo ve come with me ac
Posted inColumns
A Mother’s Love
Much as I admire his writing, I could not countenance Colm Toibin’s Mary.
Posted inIn All Things
The Trouble with ‘The Testament of Mary’
May is the month in which the church honors Mary by happy coincidence it is also the month when secular culture honors mothers According to the Bible Mary rsquo s role in salvation history is small but mighty Through the agency of the Holy Spirit she conceives the Messiah gives birth to Jesus