James McBride
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James McBride's Advice For New Writers: 'A Simple Story Is The Best Story'
McBride's most recent novel, Deacon King Kong, is set in a Brooklyn housing project in 1969. "Time and place is really crucial to good storytelling," he says. Originally broadcast Feb. 29, 2020.
'Emphasize The Positive': James McBride On The Kindness That Shaped Him
James McBride is best known for his memoir, The Color of Water, about being the son of an African American father and a white mother. His new novel, Deacon King Kong, takes place in 1969, in a Brooklyn housing project, similar to the one he grew up in., and involves the wide consequences of a shooting.
James McBride Pays Tribute to His Mother
Journalist and musician James McBride. His recent book, is "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother," about his mother who was white and Jewish, but refused to admit her race. McBride's father was black. For years, McBride knew nothing about his mother's early life. It wasn't until he started work on the book,that she opened up to tell him that her father was a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, a racist, and he sexually abused her.