Alice McDermott Wins the Prix Femina, France’s Award for the Best Foreign Novel

Alice McDermott, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has been awarded the Prix Femina, France’s award for the best foreign novel of the year. Professor McDermott was honored for her book, The Ninth Hour (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017).

The Ninth Hour follows a group of nursing nuns who care for a poor Irish Catholic community in Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th century. It was included on The New York Times’ “100 Notable Books of 2017” list.

The Ninth Hour is not the only award-winning book authored by Professor McDermott. For her 1997 novel, Charming Billy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), McDermott won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Professor McDermott has written eight novels, seven of which have been translated into French.

Professor McDermott is the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. Previously, she has held faculty positions at the University of California, San Diego, American University, the University of Lynchburg in Virginia, Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, and the University of New Hampshire.

Professor McDermott holds a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Oswego and a master’s degree from the University of New Hampshire.