Literary Hub

Colum McCann Remembers Jim Harrison

He always resisted the temptation to become part of the structure

March 31, 2016

I met the words first and then I met the man. Both were the best they could ever be. Chain lightening to everything around him.Big enough to tamp down the rain. No rust on him. He’d break your heart with a gentle word and take your head off with the next. He shot our comfortable balance all to hell and then he restored our hearts. He said it himself: “Death steals everything from us, except our stories.” It doesn’t come to me like a burning bush or a pillar of light, but I wish he’d decided to stay.

Watch: A few months before Jim Harrison’s death, Grove Atlantic associate publisher Judy Hottensen was able to spend the day with the award-winning writer.

Colum McCann

Colum McCann is the internationally bestselling author of the novels TransAtlantic, Let the Great World Spin, Zoli, Dancer, This Side of Brightness, and Songdogs, as well as two critically acclaimed story collections. He has received many honors, including the National Book Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres award from the French government, and the Ireland Fund of Monaco Literary Award in Memory of Princess Grace. A contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review, he teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing program.