* NEW YORKER * Deacon King Kong is full of heart, humor, and compassion...I say we give him another National Book Award for this one. In Deacon King Kong, McBride entertains us, and shows us both the beauty and the ugliness of humanity. McBride’s "Deacon King Kong" a fictional snapshot of a Brooklyn neighborhood in the late 1969, has won the inaugural Gotham Book Prize, given for outstanding writing about New York City. Also, caricature drives a straight line to the truth.”Ethan Hawke, who plays Captain John Brown in the seven-part Showtime series of the novel, told National Public Radio that “the magic trick that McBride does by telling the story through Onion’s point of view is he lets you laugh about it. The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) is a member community engaged in advancing the practices of connecting people to resources, information services, and collections, building relationships among members from all types of libraries, encouraging openness, innovation, and idea sharing, and promoting excellence in library services and resources. It's like having your very own parade," said James McBride, author of Deacon King Kong and winner of the Gotham Book Prize. “Deacon King Kong is a quintessential New York story. It's that good. “Deacon King Kong” is many things: a mystery novel, a crime novel, an urban farce, a portrait of a project community. The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird. of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), Assn. Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for the Real James Brown (2016), Let These Books — From Poetry To The Political — Kick Off Your 2017 Reading List, The Incredible Staying Power Of James McBride’s “The Color of Water”, Anisfield-Wolf Winners Both Attend And Object To The Brooklyn Book Festival, James McBride Delivers Soul-Stirring Renditions Of Gospel Favorites During “Good Lord Bird” Tour. SARATOGA SPRINGS —James McBride’s most recent novel, Deacon King Kong, is a poignant and clever portrayal of 1960’s Red Hook Brooklyn. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird. Sometimes the people I wanted to assimilate with didn’t see me, but I still got the practice. There’s even some western in here. It’s a major accomplishment. President Barack Obama lauded him on that 2015 occasion for “humanizing the complexities of discussing race in America” and displaying “the character of the American family.”The novelist, musician, composer and screenwriter was born in 1957 to Ruth McBride, a new widow in a Brooklyn, N.Y. housing project, the eighth of her 12 children. I’m not saying it’s a positive thing. NEW YORK, April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Gotham Book Prize, an annual award created to encourage and honor writing about New York City in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, announced today that James McBride has been selected as the winner of the first annual 2021 Gotham Book Prize for Deacon King Kong.A jury made up of leading New Yorkers nominated a shortlist of ten … Set in the Brooklyn projects in 1969, a perpetually inebriated deacon called Sportcoat aims a gun at the neighborhood’s main drug dealer in the public plaza and pulls the trigger. He [writes] the humanness into it, as opposed to a political angle. The novel is, in other words, a lot . “It was terrible fiction,” McBride told The New York Times, “but I just needed a way out. The novel is, in other words, a lot . I wasn’t a guy built to write about entertainment.”But McBride could summon an unerring comic touch. She said to Oprah Magazine in selecting the book, “I am hoping readers will find in it what I did: sorrow, joy, resilience, humanity, and an understanding that while we struggle with pain and trauma, we can find shelter in one another.”. Awards (Books & Media), Reference and User Services Association, Booklist, Related Groups, Organizations, Affiliates & Chapters, ALA Upcoming Annual Conferences & Midwinter Meetings, American Association of School Librarians (AASL), Assn. Oprah selected Deacon King Kong for her June 2020 book club pick. Smiley’s got a job to do. McBride’s fictional snapshot of a Brooklyn neighborhood in late 1969 won the inaugural Gotham Book Prize for outstanding writing about New York City. Five stars. More than ever we need books that nourish the mind and heart alike. It’s easy to walk away but it’s better to stay and do the work.”That work features being a “choir dad” at his parents’ church in his old Brooklyn neighborhood, “growing our own garden” of musicians. Overview. Deacon King Kong […] is robust and funny, confronting tragedy with an ebullient comic spirit, “pulling its punches” in unexpected ways that repudiate disaster and resound just right. “Deacon King Kong” is a mystery and a cultural romp through 1969 New York City, covering racial equity, mobsters, religion, love and change. Bruised by a bad divorce, still mourning the deaths of his mother and a niece, McBride told an audience at the Politics and Prose bookstore, “I said to God, ‘If you get me out of this, I will serve you for the rest of my life.’ And God got me out of it. Apr 6, 2021 NEW YORK (AP) – James McBride’s final credit for the novel “Deacon King Kong” is a true New York story. The novel was just named the 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner for fiction. About Carnegie Corporation of New York Oprah selected Deacon King Kong for her June 2020 book club pick. Deacon King Kong by James McBride is a 2020 Random House publication. Debating The Best Book Lists: Does Amazon’s “100 Books To Read In A Lifetime” Get It Right? NEW YORK (AP) — James McBride’s latest honor for the novel “Deacon King Kong” is a real New York story. Smiley’s got a broken heart. James McBride has worn a porkpie hat, a goatee and a wry smile on his way to becoming a celebrated artist, Spike Lee collaborator and a National Humanities Medalist. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation's work focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and the strength of our democracy. Cleveland poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf established the book awards in 1935, in honor of her father, John Anisfield, and husband, Eugene Wolf, to reflect her family’s passion for social justice. There’s even some western in here. Wit and warmth light James McBride’s ‘Deacon King Kong’ The National Book Award winner sets his new comic novel in a Brooklyn housing project in … NEW YORK (AP) — James McBride’s latest honor for the novel “Deacon King Kong” is a real New York story. Books Stars we lost TV shows 100 movies to stream It’s not self-serious, and yet it’s full of tremendous heart. McBride finds a way to make it a healing experience.”The way McBride tells it, he needed a healing himself when he wrote Deacon King Kong. Fathoms evokes depth as a unit of measurement for bodies of water and as “an attempt to understand,” Rebecca Giggs notes at the start of her deeply delving and lyrically precise investigation. The awards, established in 2012, serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. “He’s also funny. With Sportcoat (aka Deacon King Kong, for his two most prominent passions), the author has created an unforgettable protagonist for the ages. “Deacon King Kong” is McBride’s first book since winning the National Book Award for “The Good Lord Bird.” His 1995 memoir, “The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to … Bold, Brilliant and Captivating! I say we give him another National Book Award for this one. James McBride “Deacon King Kong” Author James McBride has made history in the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, becoming the first nonfiction award winner to also win a fiction award. I wanted John Brown to be as popular in American mythology, as, say, Jesse James, who was, among other things, a slaveholder and a killer. McBride’s fictional snapshot of a Brooklyn neighborhood in late 1969 won the inaugural Gotham Book Prize for outstanding writing about New York City. “Deacon King Kong” is many things: a mystery novel, a crime novel, an urban farce, a portrait of a project community. McBride creates tragedies, funny moments, major plot twists, and cultural and generational clashes as characters develop emotionally while navigating a world that’s changing for better and for worse. CHICAGO - The American Library Association (ALA) selects “Deacon King Kong,” by James McBride, published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, as the winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and "Fathoms: The World in the Whale," by Rebecca Giggs, published by Simon & Schuster, as the winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by the American Library Association and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals and booksellers who work closely with adult readers. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride's funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. There followed some “wonderful but lean” years playing saxophone as a sideman for jazz singer Little Jimmy Scott, writing songs for headliners such as Anita Baker and composing an off-Broadway musical called Bobos that won a Stephen Sondheim Award.A journalism degree from Columbia University led to newspaper staff writing jobs at the Boston Globe and Washington Post, then a few stabs at writing fiction during a stint at People magazine that included covering Michael Jackson’s “Victory” tour. “I don’t like books that say, essentially, ‘Take your medicine.’ They depress me. NEW YORK, April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Gotham Book Prize, an annual award created to encourage and honor writing about New York City in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, announced today that James McBride has been selected as the winner of the first annual 2021 Gotham Book Prize for Deacon King Kong.A jury made up of leading New Yorkers nominated a shortlist of ten … James McBride’s Deacon King Kong, recent winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in fiction, is our next selection. Set in 1969 Brooklyn, the story starts off with a literal bang when an elderly church deacon, known as ‘Sportcoat’, shoots Deems Clemens, a drug dealer, in front of the Cause houses housing project, with no shortage of witnesses. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. “Most Of What I Do Fails”: Honest Observations From James McBride. McBride subtitled his 1996 memoir: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother. Established in 1876, the American Library Association (ALA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization created to provide leadership in the transformation and the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services as well as the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird. King Kong is the name of the deacon’s favorite home-brewed hooch.“Deacon King Kong is sort of a benign variant of ‘The Wire,’” observes Joyce Carol Oates, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards juror. The novel is, in other words, a lot. He did. Delighted to be here. Saratogians with family ties to the city will find the setting and characters familiar and if not highly entertaining. Editorial Reviews. (AP Photo/Victoria Will, File) NEW YORK -- James McBride's latest honor for the novel “Deacon King Kong” is a real New York story. “It is robust and funny, confronting tragedy with an ebullient comic spirit, ‘pulling its punches’ in unexpected ways that repudiate disaster and resound just right.”McBride traces his musicality to church and home. Our two winners are exemplars of this power and it is our privilege to award them this honor.”. Andrew McBride, had started the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church, a small place that still figures prominently in their son’s life.A fictionalized version of that church, Five Ends Baptist, anchors and animates Deacon King Kong, a rollicking tale set spinning in 1969 by an elderly, alcoholic deacon who crosses a courtyard full of neighbors to shoot an ear off the most notorious drug dealer in the history of the local housing projects. Smiley can take it.”McBride splits his time between Lambertville, N.J., and New York City. With fresh perceptions and cascades of facts, Giggs considers our ancient and persistent whale wonderment, high-tech whale hunting, global warming, mass extinction, and pollution, including the oceanic plastic plague, urging us to save the whales, the oceans, and ourselves. “There’s even some western in here. His mother and father, the Rev. McBride is well known for his 1995 memoir, the bestselling book The Color of Water, which describes his life growing up in a large, poor American-African family led by his white Jewish mother. “Deacon King Kong is sort of a benign variant of ‘The Wire,’” observes Joyce Carol Oates, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards juror. This novel is fun, full of characters, well written and thoughtful, with twists and turns and a moral to boot. Winners will be announced Nov. 5. The 2021 fiction finalists include “A Burning”, by Megha Majumdar, published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC; “Deacon King Kong,” by James McBride, published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC; and “Homeland Elegies,” by Ayad Akhtar, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Group, Inc. 2021 nonfiction finalists include “Fathoms: The World in the Whale,” by Rebecca Giggs, published by Simon & Schuster; “Just Us: An American Conversation,” by Claudia Rankine, published by Graywolf Press; and “Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir,” by Natasha Trethewey, published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. * NPR * Deacon King Kong reaffirms James McBride's position among the greatest American … The sheer volume of invention in Deacon King Kong commands awe...And the sentences!The prose radiates a kind of chain-reaction energy. for Library Service to Children (ALSC), Assn. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride's funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. Yet, I’m also everybody. Andrew McBride, she converted to Christianity and became a devout Christian. Visit our COVID-19 Recovery pages for updates and recommended resources. Deacon King Kong was published in 2020 and written by American author James McBride.It is an example of near-historical fiction written about American cities and social issues. His latest book is Deacon King Kong… By Abby West James McBride: Well, thank you. 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