Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. When we talk about the heavy hitters

in American letters today, James McBride is up there. His books, whether we're talking about

the color of water, the good Lord Bird, Deacon King Kong, or Heaven and Earth Gurusory Store,

they are acclaimed by critics, awarded by his peers, and, to put it bluntly,

they sell.

So it makes sense that at the National Book Festival earlier this year, hosted by the Library

of Congress, he was given the 2024 prize for American fiction.

And at that book fest, he spoke with the NPR's Michelle Martin in front of a live audience

and talked about his career and how his writing is influenced by music.

That's coming up.

All right, before we get started, you should know that James McBride and Michelle Martin have some shared background together.

They worked at the Washington Post at the same time. And it's

easy to forget that McBride's background is in journalism until the part of the interview where

he talks about keeping a notebook on him at all times, jotting notes and observations about the

people around him. And like a good journalist, Michelle, asks him to hand it over. Here's Michelle.

We first, I think, first thought of you as a creator. I mean, look, you went to journalism school.

You worked at the Washington Post. Actually, we kind of overlapped there, although we never saw each other, because I was in the metro section and you were in style section, so you were in high cotton. You know, I was just out here doing police blotter. But I think creatively, I think

you kind of first thought of yourself as a saxophone player, correct? Would that be right?

As a musician, right?

A musician, yeah. So when did you say to yourself, I'm a writer?

Well, probably after I left the post, you know, I left the post, it was 89 maybe or 90.

I came to New York and I left the post, I can't remember, I think it was my 88.

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