James McBride & The Good Lord Bird Band

Bestselling author, musician, and screenwriter James McBride and The Good Lord Bird Band will perform at the next Writers@Grinnell event.

A Writers@Grinnell roundtable with James McBride will take place at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, April 13, 2017, in Rosenfield Center, Room 209. At 8 p.m. that evening in Herrick Chapel, James McBride and The Good Lord Bird Band will give a performance and lecture. The public is welcome at the free events.

James McBride is an author, musician and screenwriter. His landmark memoir, The Color of Water, rested on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. It is considered an American classic and is read in schools and universities across the United States.  His debut novel, Miracle at St. Anna, was translated into a major motion picture directed by American film icon Spike Lee. It was released by Disney/Touchstone in September 2008.  James wrote the script for Miracle At St. Anna and co-wrote Spike Lee's 2012 Red Hook Summer. His novel, Song Yet Sung, was released in paperback in January 2009. His latest novel, The Good Lord Bird, about American revolutionary John Brown, is the winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction. 

James is also a former staff writer for The Boston Globe, People Magazine, and The Washington Post. His work has appeared in Essence, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. His April 2007 National Geographic story “Hip Hop Planet” is considered a respected treatise on African American music and culture.

James is a native New Yorker and a graduate of New York City public schools. He studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and received his master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York at age 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a distinguished writer in residence at New York University.

The events are sponsored by Writers@Grinnell, Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Music Department, Center for Humanities, American Studies, Intercultural Affairs, and Artists@Grinnell.