James McBride (Author)

James McBride

James McBride (born September 11, 1957 in New York City ) is an American writer, journalist and musician. It was in 2013 for his novel The Good Lord Bird (dt .: The Crazy diary of Henry Shackleford ) with the National Book Award awarded, in 2015 he was appointed to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences selected.

Life

McBride is the son of an Afro-American pastor and a Polish-Jewish immigrant. He grew up in the Red Hook council estate in Brooklyn, New York . In his autobiography The Color of Water - A Black man's Tribute to His White Mother (1995; Eng. The color of water ) he describes this time of growing up in poverty and the relationship with his mother. He studied music at Oberlin College and then journalism at Columbia University in New York.

As a journalist he writes for newspapers and magazines such as the Boston Globe , the Washington Post , the New York Times and Rolling Stone and is currently Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University . He has three children and lives in New York and Lambertville, New Jersey .

literature

The Color of Water became a huge hit, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two years, and has been translated into 16 languages. It is now considered a classic and is read in school lessons across the country. His novel Miracle at St. Anna (2002, dt. The Miracle of St. Anna ) on the largely composed of African-American soldiers 92. Infantry -Division the US Army in World War II in Italy was of Spike Lee filmed.

In 2013 he received the National Book Award for Fiction for his novel The Good Lord Bird . In 2015 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama .

music

As a tenor saxophonist, McBride was a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders , a band of writers that included Dave Barry , Stephen King , Amy Tan , Scott Turow and Matt Groening . He toured with jazz singer Little Jimmy Scott and wrote pieces for Anita Baker , Grover Washington Jr. and Gary Burton . He composed music for the documentary Right to Return by Jonathan Demme about the city of New Orleans and the musical Bobos . In 1993 he was awarded the Stephen Sondheim Prize at the American Music Festival.

Works

• The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother (autobiography, 1995)
  • The color of water, German by Monika Schmalz, Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 1999. ISBN 978-3-8270-0273-0
• Miracle at St. Anna (novel, 2002)
  • The miracle of St. Anna , German from Dt. by Silvia Morawetz and Werner Schmitz ; Bloomsbury Berlin, Berlin 2004. ISBN 978-3-8270-0482-6
• Song Yet Sung (novel, 2008)
• The Good Lord Bird (Novel, 2013)
  • Henry Shackleford's Mad Diary ; German by Werner Loch-Lawrence , btb, Munich 2015. ISBN 978-3-442-75489-2
• Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul (Biography, 2016)
  • Black and Proud - In Search of James Brown and the Soul of America ; German by Werner Loch-Lawrence; btb, Munich 2017. ISBN 978-3-442-75714-5
• Five-Carat Soul (novel, 2017)
• Deacon King Kong (novel, 2020)

Scripts

• Miracle at St. Anna (2008; German: Buffalo Soldiers '44 - The Miracle of St. Anna )
• Red Hook Summer (2012; Director: Spike Lee)

Web links

• official homepage