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Voices

Angela Alaimo O’Donnell teaches English Literature, American Catholic Studies and Creative Writing at Fordham University in New York City, and serves as Associate Director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, an interdisciplinary certificate program for undergraduates who are interested in learning about the Catholic intellectual tradition. Before coming to Fordham seven years ago, she taught for 18 years at Loyola University Maryland. 

O’Donnell has published four books of poems: two chapbooks, MINE (2007) and Waiting for Ecstasy (2009), and two full-length collections of poems, Moving House (2009) and Saint Sinatra & Other Poems (2011). Her poems appeared regularly inAmerica, Christian Century, Christianity and Literature, The Cresset, First Things, Hawaii Pacific Review, Italian Americana, Potomac Review, Riverwind, RUNES: A Review of Poetry, Vineyards, Xavier Review, ThePedestalMagazine.com, Valparaiso Poetry Review and Windhover, among other publications. In 2012, O’Donnell published The Promise of Joy: Praying with Flannery O'Connor, a book of hours based on the prayer life of Catholic fiction writer, Flannery O’Connor.

In addition to writing poems, O’Donnell writes essays that engage literature and art in the context of the Catholic intellectual tradition. Her essays and reviews have appeared in journals such as America, Anglican Theological Review, Commonweal, Studies in Philology, Christianity and Literature and have been included in a variety of collections and anthologies.  Her essay on “Poetry & Catholic Themes” was recently published in Teaching the Tradition, edited by John Piderit, SJ, and Melanie Morey (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Of Other Things
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
‘There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” These famous words of Thomas Merton convey the vision he experienced standing on a street corner in Louisville, Ky., on March 18, 1958. It was 10 years and nine months before his untimely death, bu
Faith in Focus
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
Each day after her mother's fall had its attendant rituals, including an offering of key lime pie.
Of Other Things
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
The play 'Grand Concourse' refuses to simplify the cause or cure for spiritual desolation.
Of Other Things
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
The monks of St. John’s Abbey Church welcome the stranger, as do those morning bells.
Of Other Things
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
The best way to get to know a writer you love is to visit his or her home.
Of Other Things
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
Depicting belief - believably - in a literary culture that views religion as a relic of the past.
Columns
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
Writing can reveal our inmost thoughts, our private histories and, ultimately, our mystery.
Arts & CultureColumns
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
Both Plath and O'Connor were painfully aware of the demands their craft made on them.
In All Things
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
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
In All Things
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
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