James McBride is the author of the New York Times–bestselling Oprah’s
Book Club selec­tion Dea­con King Kong, the Nation­al Book Award–
win­ning The Good Lord Bird, the Amer­i­can clas­sic The Col­or of Water, the
nov­els Song Yet Sung and Mir­a­cle at St. Anna, the sto­ry col­lec­tion Five-
Carat Soul, and Kill ’Em and Leave, a biog­ra­phy of James Brown. The
recip­i­ent of a Nation­al Human­i­ties Medal and an accom­plished musi­cian,
McBride is also a dis­tin­guished writer in res­i­dence at New York Uni­ver­si­ty.