Author Frank McCourt dies

The death of Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt is not feminist news, I know. But McCourt had a special place in my heart, so I just wanted to take a minute to acknowledge him.
I knew McCourt as Mr. McCourt – he was my English teacher in high school for a short while. He was also the first person to read my writing out loud – he picked my essay out of everyone’s in our class to read as an example of good work, and it made an incredible impact on me. (In no small part because I admired him so much as a teacher.) He was a big part of the reason I wanted to be a writer.
McCourt’s writing touched a lot of people, but I’ll always be grateful that for years, students in New York City were blessed with him as a teacher.