2024 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction
James McBride is the author of the bestselling novel “Deacon King Kong”; “The Good Lord Bird,” winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction; “The Color of Water”; “Song Yet Sung”; the story collection “Five-Carat Soul”; and the James Brown biography “Kill ’Em and Leave.” His debut novel, “Miracle at St. Anna,” was turned into a 2008 film. In 2016, McBride was awarded the National Humanities Medal. His recent bestselling novel, “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” which received the 2023 Kirkus Prize for Fiction and was named Barnes & Noble’s 2023 Book of the Year, is featured at the 2024 National Book Festival.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden selected McBride as this year’s winner based on nominations from distinguished literary figures, including former winners of the prize, acclaimed authors and literary critics from across the United States. “I’m honored to bestow the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction on a writer as imaginative and knowing as James McBride,” Hayden said. “McBride knows the American soul deeply, reflecting our struggles and triumphs in his fiction, which so many readers have intimately connected with. I, also, am one of his enthusiastic readers.”
“I wish my mom were still alive to know about this,” McBride said. “I’m delighted and honored. Does it mean I can use the Library? If so, I’m double thrilled.”
McBride is also a musician, a composer and a current distinguished writer-in-residence at New York University.