Author Colum McCann, a National Book Award winner, was assaulted outside the Study Hotel last week, police said in a Wednesday release.
According to witness accounts following the June 28 incident, McCann reportedly stepped in to break up a dispute between an unidentified male and female when he was attacked. Police could not confirm that the same male was the assailant, but the release indicated that authorities consider him to be a suspect.
EMTs accompanied police to the scene outside the Chapel St. hotel at around 10 p.m. that night.
“Detectives have significant leads in this case and are hopeful an arrest will be made soon,” NHPD spokesman David Hartman said in the release.
McCann, 49, sustained significant injuries to his face, but was alert and spoke with NHPD detectives at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He currently teaches creative writing courses at Hunter College in New York City.
Though police did not provide any information regarding the nature of McCann’s visit to New Haven, Narrative 4, a think tank-type organization for which McCann is the Chairman and Co-Founder, was scheduled to host its N4 Leadership Summit on campus from June 27 through July 1.
McCann’s 2009 novel Let the Great World Spin won the 2009 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Other publications for which the Irish author has written include the New York Times, Esquire and The Atlantic.