Jake Lamar

{{Short description|American writer, novelist, playwright and cultural critic}}

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| caption = Jake Lamar signing at the 7th Interpol'Art Festival in Reims , in October 2012.

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| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

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| alma_mater = Harvard University

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Jake Lamar (born in 1961 in The Bronx, New York City) is an African-American writer, novelist, playwright, and cultural critic[https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n91057634.html The Library of Congress] living in Paris.

After graduating from Harvard University, Lamar spent six years writing for Time magazine.[https://fusac.fr/interview-with-jake-lamar1/ Interview with American writer Jake Lamar] He has lived in Paris since 1993[https://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/littérature-sans-frontières/20211231-jake-lamar-le-jazz-américain-le-roman-noir-et-paris Jake Lamar, le jazz américain, le roman noir et Paris] and teaches creative writing at Sciences Po. At age 30, he published a memoir, Bourgeois Blues, in which he evoked his relationship with his father. With it, he won the Lyndhurst Prize.{{cite web |url=https://ideasimagination.columbia.edu/fellows/profile/jake-lamar#:~:text=He%20is%20a%20recipient%20of,his%20play%20Brothers%20in%20Exile. |title=Jake Lamar |publisher=Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination |accessdate=2022-05-27 }} In 1993, he moved to Paris in the 18th arrondissement where he still resides.

After a near fatal heart problem in 2015, Lamar wrote an article in the Los Angeles Times on the quality of the socialist system of health care in France.[https://ellia.org/events/talk-by-jake-lamar-brothers-in-exile-african-american-authors-in-paris/ TALK BY JAKE LAMAR] His most recent work, Viper's Dream (No Exit Press, 2023) is a crime novel set in the jazz world of Harlem between the years 1936 and 1961.[https://noexit.co.uk/index1.php?imprint=1&isbn=9780857305497] Viper's Dream, No Exit Press A version of Viper's Dream was broadcast (in French) as a 10-episode radio play in 2019. That production included many jazz tracks of the period. Viper's Dream was published in French as a novel by Rivages/Noir in 2021. Viper's Dream was published in the US by Crooked Lane Books in 2023.

In July 2024, Viper's Dream received the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger Award.{{Cite web |last=Cooper-Fiske |first=Casey |date=2024-07-04 |title=James Bond author among winners of crime writing awards |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/alex-rider-anthony-horowitz-faber-midsomer-murders-nicholas-shakespeare-b1168774.html |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=The Standard |language=en}}

In December 2024, Das schwarze Chamäleon, the German translation of his novel If 6 Were 9, won the German Crime Fiction Award in the international category.