James Carroll

James Carroll is an independent writer and Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University in Boston. Carroll attended Georgetown University before entering the seminary to train for the Catholic priesthood. He received BA and MA degrees from St. Paul's College, the Paulist Fathers' seminary in Washington, and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1969. Carroll served as Catholic Chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974 and then left the priesthood to become a writer. In 1974 Carroll was Playwright-in-Residence at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, MA. He has published eleven novels, most notably Mortal Friends (1978), Secret Father, and The City Below (1994). Additionally, Carroll has written eight non-fiction books, including his memoir, An American Requiem: God, My Father and the War that Came Between Us (1996) that recounts one family's experience of the conflicts surrounding the Vietnam War and received the The National Book Award. His book Constantine's Sword: the Church and the Jews (2001) is a history of the conflict between Judaism and Christianity, refracted through his own experience as a Roman Catholic. He wrote it as a Fellow at Harvard University, where he wasa Research Associate at the Divinity School. His weekly oped column appears in the Boston Globe, considering a range of subjects from religion to politics to arms control. Carroll is a member of the Council of PEN-New England, which he chaired for four years. He has been a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at the Harvard Divinity School, while also serving as a trustee of the Boston Public Library.