| Barry Beckham | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1944 (age 79–80) Philadelphia, United States |
| Alma mater | Brown University |
| Occupation(s) | Playwright and novelist |
| Notable work | Runner Mack (1972) |
| Website | www |
Barry Earl Beckham (born March 19, 1944) is an American playwright and novelist.
Biography
Beckham was born in 1944 in Philadelphia, United States, to Clarence and Mildred (nÊe William) Beckham. At the age of nine, he moved with his mother to a black neighborhood in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He graduated from Atlantic City High School and in 1962 he entered Brown University as one of only eight black students in the freshman year and one of three black graduates in 1966.
He began his first novel, My Main Mother (1969), while in his senior year at Brown University. Beckham completed the novel at the age of 25 in 1969. He graduated in 1966 with a degree in English. His second novel, Runner Mack (1972), was nominated for a National Book Award.
His play Garvey Lives!, about Jamaican-born Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey, was produced by George Houston Bass of the Rites and Reason Theatre, a black theatre group at Brown University.
Beckham returned to Brown in 1970 as a visiting lecturer in English and African American Studies. He had a 17-year career at the university, including several years as the head of the graduate creative writing program.
References
- ^ Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (1999). Contemporary African American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313305016.
- Monaghan, Charles. "Book Report", The Washington Post, June 14, 1987. Accessed August 8, 2018. "A native of Atlantic City, N.J., Beckham was president of his class at Atlantic City High School before going to Brown, where he was one of three black graduates in the class of 1966."
- ^ "Beckham, Barry (1944)". The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature.
- Rutter, Emily (2017). "Barry Beckham's Runner Mack and the Tradition of Black Baseball Literature". MELUS. 42 (1): 74â93. doi:10.1093/melus/mlw059. ISSN 0163-755X.
- "Guidebook for Blacks rates 114 colleges". Jet: 22. November 1, 1982.
External links
Categories:- 1944 births
- 20th-century American novelists
- 20th-century African-American writers
- 20th-century American male writers
- 21st-century African-American writers
- African-American dramatists and playwrights
- African-American male writers
- African-American novelists
- American dramatists and playwrights
- American male novelists
- Atlantic City High School alumni
- Brown University alumni
- Brown University faculty
- Living people
- Novelists from New Jersey
- Novelists from Pennsylvania
- People from Atlantic City, New Jersey
- Writers from Atlantic City, New Jersey
- Writers from Philadelphia