David Wright (born 1964) is an American writer.
David Wright | |
|---|---|
 Wright at the 2016 Texas Book Festival. | |
| Born | 1964 (age 59–60) |
| Occupation | Professor, writer |
| Language | English |
| Education | Carleton College (BA) University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts (MFA) |
Early life and education
Wright grew up in Borger, Texas. His mother is a white Jewish woman who survived the Nazi occupation of Paris. Her parents were affluent, assimilated French Jews. His mother was a member of the French Communist Party; she immigrated to the US in the 1950s as the GI bride of an African-American soldier.[1] He holds a BA from Carleton College and an MFA from the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He also studied at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Before he started teaching creative writing, he was a player/coach on various American football teams in Paris and London. He teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but lives in Texas[2].
He has also published under the name "David Wright Faladé", in honor of his biological father. His father Maximien Faladé was a devout Catholic from Porto-Novo in Benin, the grandson of Béhanzin, the last King of Dahomey.[3]
Works
Books
- Black Cloud Rising, Atlantic Monthly Press, February 2022.[4] [5]
- Bouchard, Luc; Wright, David (April 12, 2016). Away Running. Victoria, British Columbia: Orca Books. ISBN 978-1-4598-1048-8. OCLC 913176274.[6][7][8][9]
- Wright, David; Zoby, David (2002). Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515484-3. OCLC 49284293.[10][11][12][13]
Short stories
- "The Sand Banks, 1861" (2020)[14]
Documentary film
- Rescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Lifesavers (2010).[15]
Television journalism
- "The Pea Island Story", co-written and co-produced with Stephanie Frederic and David Zoby. Aired on BET Tonight, February 1999.[citation needed]
Awards
- 2017: International Board on Books for Young People, grades 9–12, Away Running[16]
- 2011: Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.[17]
- 2009: North Carolina Humanities Council, Large Grant, for production of Rescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Lifesavers.[citation needed]
- 2005: Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, University of Texas and the Texas Institute of Letters.[citation needed]
- 2004: Tennessee Williams Scholar, Sewanee Writers’ Conference.[citation needed]
- 1999: National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Institute for College and University Faculty Fellow, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, Harvard University, "The Civil Rights Movement: History and Consequences".[citation needed]
- 1997–1998: Chancellor’s Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship, Afro-American Studies and Research Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[citation needed]
- 1994: Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award, the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, Fairfax, VA.[citation needed]
- 1993: Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship, Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies, Mystic, Connecticut.[citation needed]
