HIGHLIGHTS

James McBride

Author and Musician

Opening Session Plenary Speaker
Friday, July 16, 2004

James McBride is an award-winning writer, composer and saxophonist. His memoir, "The Color of Water," remained on the "New York Times" Bestseller List for two years, has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and has become an American classic read in colleges and high schools. It is the autobiographical account of his mother, a white Jewish woman from Poland who raised 12 black children in New York City and sent each to college. His newest book, "Miracle at St. Anna," which the "Baltimore Sun" called a "searingly, soaringly beautiful novel," has been dubbed "a lyrical, touching fable about the miraculous power of love" by "Publishers Weekly." The book, already climbing the bestseller list, is the story of a black American soldier who befriends a six-year-old Italian boy in Italy during World War II.

McBride is a former staff writer for "The Boston Globe," "People Magazine" and "The Washington Post." His work has appeared in numerous publications, including "The New York Times" and "Rolling Stone." He is the recipient of the 1997 Anisfield Wolf Book Award as well as several awards for his work as a composer in musical theatre, including the American Arts and Letters Richard Rodgers Award, The ASCAP Richard Rodgers Horizons Award and the American Music Theatre Festival's Stephen Sondheim Award.

He has written songs for Anita Baker, Grover Washington, Jr., Gary Burton, Silver Burdett Music Textbooks and for the PBS television character "Barney," and fronts a 12 piece R&B jazz band. McBride studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Whitman College and The College of New Jersey.

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