To award-winning Irish author Colum McCann, being a small part of humanity's long storytelling legacy is a privilege, and the only thing that can trump life itself. "I love the fact that our stories can cross all sorts of borders and boundaries," the author said in a recent interview. His works of fiction have done just this, holding a lens to various topics of crisis and culture clashes around the world, including homeless people in the subway tunnels of New York, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the effects of 9/11, and the life and culture of the Roma in Europe. McCann received the National Book Award for his novel, "Let the Great World Spin."

McCann will visit Rochester this week, to speak as part of this season's Arts & Lectures Uncommon Voices Series, on Thursday, November 14. The event will be held at Downtown United Presbyterian Church (121 N. Fitzhugh St.), at 7:30 p.m. Standing-room-only tickets will be sold for $15 on a first-come, first-served basis, beginning at 6:45 p.m. For more information visit artsandlectures.org.