James McBride (writer) explained

James McBride
Birth Date:11 September 1957
Birth Place:New York City, U.S.
Occupation:Journalist, musician
Education:Oberlin College (BA)
Columbia University (MA)
Genre:Memoir, screenplay
Notableworks:The Color of Water
The Good Lord Bird (National Book Award, 2013)The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
Children:3
Awards:Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
Signature:James McBride signature (cropped).jpg

James McBride (born September 11, 1957)[1] is an American writer and musician. He is the recipient of the 2013 National Book Award for fiction for his novel The Good Lord Bird.

Early life

McBride's father, Rev. Andrew D. McBride (August 8, 1911 – April 5, 1957) was African-American; he died of cancer at the age of 45. His mother, Ruchel Dwajra Zylska (name changed to Rachel Deborah Shilsky, and later to Ruth McBride Jordan; April 1, 1921 – January 9, 2010), was a Jewish immigrant from Poland. James was raised in Brooklyn's Red Hook housing projects until he was seven years old and was the last child Ruth had from her first marriage, the last child of Rev. Andrew McBride, and the eighth of 12 children.

McBride states:

His memoir, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother (1995), describes his family history and his relationship with his mother.[2]

McBride graduated from Oberlin College in 1979, and received his journalism degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1980.[3] [4]

Career

Books and screenplays

McBride is well known for his 1995 memoir, the bestselling book The Color of Water, which describes his life growing up in a large, poor American-African family led by ethnically Jewish mother. She was strict and the daughter of an Orthodox rabbi. During her first marriage, to Rev. Andrew McBride, she converted to Christianity and became a devout Christian. The memoir, which won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award,[5] spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list, and has become an American classic. It is read in high schools and universities across America, has been translated into 16 languages, and sold more than 2.1 million copies.[6]

In 2002, McBride published a novel, Miracle at St. Anna, drawing on the history of the overwhelmingly African-American 92nd Infantry Division in the Italian campaign from mid-1944 to April 1945. The book was adapted into the 2008 movie Miracle at St. Anna, directed by Spike Lee.

In 2005, McBride published the first volume The Process, a CD-based documentary about life as lived by low-profile jazz musicians.

His 2008 novel Song Yet Sung is about an enslaved woman who has dreams about the future, and a wide array of freed black people, enslaved people, and whites whose lives come together in the odyssey surrounding the last weeks of this woman's life. Harriet Tubman served as an inspiration for the book, which gives a fictional depiction of a code of communication that enslaved people used to help runaways attain freedom. The book, based on real events that occurred on Maryland's Eastern Shore, also featured notorious criminal Patty Cannon as a villain.[7]

In 2012, McBride co-wrote and co-produced Red Hook Summer (2012) with Spike Lee.[8]

In July 2013, McBride co-authored Hard Listening (2013) with the rest of the Rock Bottom Remainders (published by Coliloquy).[9] In August 2013, his The Good Lord Bird, a novel, was released by Riverhead Books. The work details the life of notorious abolitionist John Brown. It won the 2013 National Book Award for fiction.[10]

On September 22, 2016, President Barack Obama awarded McBride the 2015 National Humanities Medal "for humanizing the complexities of discussing race in America. Through writings about his own uniquely American story, and his works of fiction informed by our shared history, his moving stories of love display the character of the American family."[11] In December 2020, Emily Temple of Literary Hub reported that his novel Deacon King Kong had made 16 lists of the best books of 2020,[12] while in February 2021 it won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.[13] Deacon King Kong received the 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction[14] and was selected for Oprah's Book Club.

In 2023, he released The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store about the intertwining lives of African American, Jewish, immigrant, and white residents in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, largely taking place in the 1920s and 30s. The novel was named 2023 Book of the Year by both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.[15] It was also awarded the Kirkus Prize for Fiction[16] and the 2024 Jewish Fiction Award.[17]

Saxophonist and composer

McBride is the tenor saxophonist for the Rock Bottom Remainders, a group of best-selling authors who are also musicians. "Hopefully", McBride says, "the group has retired for good." He also toured as a saxophonist with jazz legend Little Jimmy Scott and has his own band that plays an eclectic blend of music. He has written songs for Anita Baker, Grover Washington Jr., Pura Fé, and Gary Burton.[18] McBride composed the theme music for the Clint Harding Network, Jonathan Demme's New Orleans documentary Right to Return, and Ed Shockley's off-Broadway musical Bobos.[19]

McBride was awarded the American Music Theater Festival's Stephen Sondheim Award in 1993, the American Arts and Letters Richard Rodgers Award in 1996, and the inaugural ASCAP Richard Rodgers Horizons Award in 1996.[20]

Personal life

McBride is a Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University. He has three children with his ex-wife and lives in New York City and Lambertville, New Jersey.[21]

Bibliography

Filmography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Good Reads . January 16, 2010 . June 21, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190621015402/https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11728.James_McBride . live .
  2. News: Ruth McBride Jordan, Subject of Son's Book 'Color of Water,' Dies at 88. The New York Times. January 2010. January 28, 2010. Dennis. Hevesi. June 8, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190608060025/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/arts/16jordan.html. live.
  3. Web site: James McBride, Caroline Kennedy, and Other Alumni in the News. 2021-08-31. Columbia Magazine. en. August 31, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831023342/https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/james-mcbride-caroline-kennedy-and-other-alumni-news. live.
  4. Web site: Thank You James McBride . November 7, 2016 . August 23, 2023 . August 23, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230823003101/https://www.oberlin.edu/news/thank-you-james-mcbride . live .
  5. Web site: The Color of Water . Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards . March 22, 2021 . March 1, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210301105558/https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/winners/the-color-of-water/ . live .
  6. Web site: One Book, One Philadelphia: The Color of Water Reading Guide. Free Library of Philadelphia. May 23, 2020. March 2, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170302083043/https://libwww.freelibrary.org/onebook/obop04/char04.cfm. dead.
  7. News: Prophetic Dreams. July 3, 2013. New York Times. February 3, 2008. Bell. Madison Smartt. Madison Smartt Bell. November 4, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141104193428/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Bell-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. live.
  8. Web site: James McBride. African American Literature Book Club. aalbc.com. May 23, 2020. April 9, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160409151450/http://aalbc.com/authors/jamesmcbride.htm. live.
  9. Web site: Hard Listening. Rock Bottom Remainders. October 16, 2013. October 8, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191008172736/http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/hard-listening.html. live.
  10. Web site: 2013 National Book Award Winner, fiction. National Book Foundation. April 7, 2015. September 25, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180925091425/http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2013_f_mcbride.html. dead.
  11. Web site: At White House, A Golden Moment For America's Great Artists And Patrons. NPR. Dwyer. Colin. September 22, 2016. September 22, 2016. January 13, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200113214611/https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/22/495011305/at-white-house-a-golden-moment-for-americas-great-artists-and-patrons. live.
  12. Web site: Temple. Emily. 2020-12-15. The Ultimate Best Books of 2020 List. 2021-01-04. Literary Hub. en-US. December 15, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201215100106/https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-best-books-of-2020-list/. live.
  13. Web site: 2021-02-04. 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced. https://web.archive.org/web/20210215114648/https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/2021-andrew-carnegie-medal-winners-announced/. February 15, 2021. 2021-02-11. American Libraries Magazine. en-US. live.
  14. Web site: Introducing Our Class of 2021 . Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards . April 5, 2021 . April 5, 2021 . April 5, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210405134559/https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/2021/04/introducing-our-class-of-2021/ . live .
  15. Web site: A Double Honor: THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE Now Amazon Book of the Year, B&N Book of the Year . 2024-07-01 . penguinrandomhouse.com . en-US.
  16. Web site: ‘The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store’ Wins Kirkus Prize for Fiction . 2024-07-01 . www.voanews.com.
  17. Web site: Marketing . Chris . 2024-02-15 . The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store Wins the 2024 Jewish Fiction Award . 2024-07-01 . Eisenhower Public Library . en-US.
  18. https://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/colorofwater.html Brandeis.edu
  19. News: Carlozo. Louis. My other passion / JAMES McBRIDE. July 3, 2013. Chicago Tribune. February 26, 2008. March 17, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140317212915/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-02-26/features/0802220485_1_james-mcbride-music-passion. live.
  20. Web site: James McBride (bio). Rock Bottom Remainders. April 7, 2015. June 13, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170613022425/http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/james.html. live.
  21. News: Traveling With John Brown Along the Road to Literary Celebrity. Julie. Bosman. The New York Times'. November 24, 2013. February 22, 2017. March 22, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160322025325/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/books/james-mcbride-on-his-novel-the-good-lord-bird.html?hpw&rref=books&_r=0. live.