James McCourt (born July 4, 1941) is a gay[1] American-born writer and novelist who was raised in Jackson Heights, Queens.

[4] McCourt's and Virga's papers are held[5] at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

McCourt is best known for his extravagant novel Mawrdew Czgowchwz (1975), about a fictional opera diva, and his 2003 nonfiction book Queer Street, about gay life in New York City after World War II.

McCourt has garnered praise from critics Susan Sontag and Harold Bloom and has been championed by author Dennis Cooper.

Sontag directed McCourt's first novel, Mawrdew Czgowchwz, to her publisher's attention,[3] while Bloom named a later work, Time Remaining to his influential Western Canon.