National Council on the Arts Members

James McBride (Carversville, PA)

James McBride is an author, musician, and composer. He is best known for his autobiographical novel The Color of Water of 1996, which was the American Library Association's Notable Book of the Year, on the New York Times bestseller list for two years, and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. He is also an accomplished saxophone and piano player, having studied music at Oberlin and the New England Conservatory of Music. After graduation, he pursued a career in journalism for eight years, working at the Boston Globe, People Magazine, and the Washington Post. His work as a composer has found success on Anita Baker's 1988 Grammy Award-winning album Giving You the Best That I Got, and through his scores for musicals that earned him the American Music Festival's Stephen Sondheim Award. In 2002, McBride's second book, The Miracle at St. Anna, was published, and in 2003, he released his first solo album The Process. In 1996, he was recognized with ASCAP's Richard Rodgers Horizons Award, and in 1997 with the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Literary Excellence. McBride attended New York City public schools, received his B.A. from Oberlin College, and earned a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University.

National Endowment for the Arts
webmgr@arts.endow.gov