James McBride (writer)

{{Infobox writer

| name = James McBride

| image = James mcbride 2013.jpg

| alt =

| caption = McBride at the 2013 Texas Book Festival

| pseudonym =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1957|09|11}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date =

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| occupation = Journalist, musician

| language =

| ethnicity =

| citizenship =

| education = Oberlin College (BA)
Columbia University (MA)

| period =

| genre = Memoir, screenplay

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| movement =

| notableworks = The Color of Water

The Good Lord Bird (National Book Award, 2013)

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

| spouse =

| partner =

| children = 3

| relatives =

| awards = Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

| signature = James McBride signature (cropped).jpg

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| website = {{URL|jamesmcbride.com}}

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}}

{{About|the writer|other people|James McBride (disambiguation){{!}}James McBride}}

James McBride (born September 11, 1957){{Cite web |url=http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11728.James_McBride |title=Good Reads |access-date=January 16, 2010 |archive-date=June 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621015402/https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11728.James_McBride |url-status=live }} 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:

{{blockquote|I'm proud of my Jewish history....Technically I guess you could say I'm Jewish since my mother was Jewish...but she converted (to Christianity). So the question is for theologians to answer. ... I just get up in the morning happy to be living."{{cite web|last=Sherwin|first=Elisabeth|title=One man's unique story about poverty, race, family|date=February 9, 1997|url=http://dcn.davis.ca.us/go/gizmo/mcbride.html|access-date=March 7, 2013|archive-date=September 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190913225148/http://dcn.davis.ca.us/go/gizmo/mcbride.html|url-status=live}}}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/arts/16jordan.html|work=The New York Times|title=Ruth McBride Jordan, Subject of Son's Book 'Color of Water,' Dies at 88|date=January 2010|access-date=January 28, 2010|first=Dennis|last=Hevesi|archive-date=June 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608060025/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/arts/16jordan.html|url-status=live}}

McBride graduated from Oberlin College in 1979, and received his journalism degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1980.{{Cite web|title=James McBride, Caroline Kennedy, and Other Alumni in the News|url=https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/james-mcbride-caroline-kennedy-and-other-alumni-news|access-date=2021-08-31|website=Columbia Magazine|language=en|archive-date=August 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831023342/https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/james-mcbride-caroline-kennedy-and-other-alumni-news|url-status=live}}{{cite web | url=https://www.oberlin.edu/news/thank-you-james-mcbride | title=Thank You James McBride | date=November 7, 2016 | access-date=August 23, 2023 | archive-date=August 23, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823003101/https://www.oberlin.edu/news/thank-you-james-mcbride | url-status=live }}

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 an 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,{{Cite web | url=https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/winners/the-color-of-water/ | title=The Color of Water | website=Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards | access-date=March 22, 2021 | archive-date=March 1, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301105558/https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/winners/the-color-of-water/ | url-status=live }} 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.{{cite web|url=http://libwww.freelibrary.org/onebook/obop04/char04.cfm|title=One Book, One Philadelphia: The Color of Water Reading Guide|publisher=Free Library of Philadelphia|access-date=May 23, 2020|archive-date=March 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302083043/https://libwww.freelibrary.org/onebook/obop04/char04.cfm|url-status=dead}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Bell-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|access-date=July 3, 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=February 3, 2008|title=Prophetic Dreams|last=Bell|first=Madison Smartt|author-link=Madison Smartt Bell|archive-date=November 4, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104193428/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Bell-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|url-status=live}}

In 2012, McBride co-wrote and co-produced Red Hook Summer (2012) with Spike Lee.{{cite web|url=http://aalbc.com/authors/jamesmcbride.htm|title=James McBride|publisher=African American Literature Book Club. aalbc.com|access-date=May 23, 2020|archive-date=April 9, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409151450/http://aalbc.com/authors/jamesmcbride.htm|url-status=live}}

In July 2013, McBride co-authored Hard Listening (2013) with the rest of the Rock Bottom Remainders (published by Coliloquy).{{cite web|url=http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/hard-listening.html|title=Hard Listening|website=Rock Bottom Remainders|access-date=October 16, 2013|archive-date=October 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191008172736/http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/hard-listening.html|url-status=live}} 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.{{cite web|title=2013 National Book Award Winner, fiction|url=http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2013_f_mcbride.html|website=National Book Foundation|access-date=April 7, 2015|archive-date=September 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925091425/http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2013_f_mcbride.html|url-status=dead}}

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."{{cite web|title=At White House, A Golden Moment For America's Great Artists And Patrons|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/22/495011305/at-white-house-a-golden-moment-for-americas-great-artists-and-patrons|publisher=NPR|last=Dwyer|first=Colin|access-date=September 22, 2016|date=September 22, 2016|archive-date=January 13, 2020|archive-url=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|url-status=live}}

File:D03 9489 James McBride.jpg

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,{{Cite web|last=Temple|first=Emily|date=2020-12-15|title=The Ultimate Best Books of 2020 List|url=https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-best-books-of-2020-list/|access-date=2021-01-04|website=Literary Hub|language=en-US|archive-date=December 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201215100106/https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-best-books-of-2020-list/|url-status=live}} while in February 2021 it won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2021-02-04|title=2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced|url=https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/2021-andrew-carnegie-medal-winners-announced/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215114648/https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/2021-andrew-carnegie-medal-winners-announced/|archive-date=February 15, 2021|access-date=2021-02-11|website=American Libraries Magazine|language=en-US|url-status=live}} Deacon King Kong received the 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction{{cite web | title=Introducing Our Class of 2021 | website=Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards | date=April 5, 2021 | url=https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/2021/04/introducing-our-class-of-2021/ | access-date=April 5, 2021 | archive-date=April 5, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210405134559/https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/2021/04/introducing-our-class-of-2021/ | url-status=live }} and was selected for Oprah's Book Club.

In 2023, he released The Heaven & 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.{{Cite web |title=A Double Honor: THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE Now Amazon Book of the Year, B&N Book of the Year |url=https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/a-double-honor-the-heaven-earth-grocery-store-now-amazon-book-of-the-year-bn-book-of-the-year/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=penguinrandomhouse.com |language=en-US}} It was also awarded the Kirkus Prize for Fiction{{Cite web |title='The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store' Wins Kirkus Prize for Fiction |url=https://www.voanews.com/amp/the-heaven-earth-grocery-store-wins-kirkus-prize-for-fiction-/7307445.html |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Voice of America}} and the 2024 Jewish Fiction Award.{{Cite web |last=Marketing |first=Chris |date=2024-02-15 |title=The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store Wins the 2024 Jewish Fiction Award |url=https://eisenhowerlibrary.org/the-heaven-earth-grocery-store-wins-the-2024-jewish-fiction-award/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Eisenhower Public Library |language=en-US}} In 2025, the novel was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.{{Cite web |last=IGO |date=2025-01-14 |title=The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store |url=https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-library/books/the-heaven-earth-grocery-store/ |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=Dublin Literary Award |language=en-US}}

=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{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} 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.[https://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/colorofwater.html Brandeis.edu] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110907080349/http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/colorofwater.html |date=September 7, 2011 }} 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.{{cite news|last=Carlozo|first=Louis|title=My other passion / JAMES McBRIDE|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2008/02/26/my-other-passion-james-mcbride/|access-date=July 3, 2013|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=February 26, 2008|archive-date=March 17, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317212915/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-02-26/features/0802220485_1_james-mcbride-music-passion|url-status=live}}

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.{{cite web|title=James McBride (bio)|url=http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/james.html|website=Rock Bottom Remainders|access-date=April 7, 2015|archive-date=June 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613022425/http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/james.html|url-status=live}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/books/james-mcbride-on-his-novel-the-good-lord-bird.html?hpw&rref=books&_r=0|first=Julie|last=Bosman|title=Traveling With John Brown Along the Road to Literary Celebrity|newspaper=The New York Times'|date=November 24, 2013|access-date=February 22, 2017|archive-date=March 22, 2016|archive-url=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|url-status=live}}

Bibliography

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother (1995)
Miracle at St. Anna (2002)
Song Yet Sung (2008)
The Good Lord Bird (2013)
Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul (2016)
Five-Carat Soul (2017)
Deacon King Kong (2020)
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (2023)

Filmography

References

External links

Curry, Ginette. "Toubab La!": Literary Representations of Mixed-race Characters in the African Diaspora.Cambridge Scholars Pub., Newcastle, England.2007 [https://www.amazon.com/Literary-Representations-Mixed-Race-Characters-Diaspora/dp/1847182313].
[http://www.jamesmcbride.com McBride's official website]
{{IMDb name|2678286|James McBride}}
[https://www.npr.org/2021/03/05/973984727/james-mcbrides-advice-for-new-writers-a-simple-story-is-the-best-story James McBride's Advice For New Writers: 'A Simple Story Is The Best Story']. Author Interviews: 29 minute audio with transcript, Fresh Air, NPR, March 5, 2021.

Category:1957 births

Category:20th-century African-American people

Category:21st-century African-American musicians

Category:21st-century American essayists

Category:21st-century American male musicians

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American memoirists

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American saxophonists

Category:African-American Jews

Category:African-American novelists

Category:American jazz saxophonists