James McBride (writer)
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James McBride (b. 1957) is an American writer and musician whose compositions have been recorded by a variety of other musicians.
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[edit] Early life
He is black and Jewish. He the eighth of 12 children, and was raised in Brooklyn's Red Hook housing projects. "I'm proud of my Jewish history," he has said. "Technically I guess you could say I'm Jewish since my mother was Jewish...but she converted. So the question is for theologians to answer. ... I just get up in the morning happy to be living."
He is a graduate in music composition from Oberlin College, and received a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.
[edit] Journalism career
As a journalist, he was on the staffs of many well-known publications, including The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal, and People magazine. He has written pieces for Rolling Stone magazine, Us magazine, the Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Essence, The New York Times, and others.
[edit] Books
McBride is especially known for his 1996 memoir, The Color of Water which describes his life growing up in a large African American family led by a white Jewish mother, whose father was an orthodox rabbi, but who converted and became devoutly Christian during her marriage.
"I thought it would be received well in the black community but it's sold much better in the white Jewish community," he said. "Most of my readers are middle-age, white, Jewish women...."[1]
The memoir spent over two years on The New York Times bestseller list, and now appears on high school and university course lists across America.
In 2003, he 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.
As of 2005, he has published the first volume of The Process, a CD-based documentary about life as lived by low-profile jazz musicians.
[edit] Saxophonist & composer
He has become the tenor saxophonist in the Rock Bottom Remainders.
He has written songs for Anita Baker, Grover Washington, Jr., Purafe, and Gary Burton.[2]
McBride was awarded the 1993 American Music Festival’s Stephen Sondheim Award, the 1996 American Arts and Letters Richard Rodgers Award, and the 1996 ASCAP Richard Rodgers Horizons Award.
[edit] Teaching
McBride is currently a Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University.
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