Editing James Alan McPherson (section)

==Life and work==

===Early life and education===
McPherson was born in [[Savannah, Georgia]], on September 16, 1943, the second of four children.<ref name="biography.com">{{cite web | url=http://www.biography.com/people/james-alan-mcpherson-38864 | title=James Alan McPherson Biography | publisher=A&E Television Networks | work=The Biography.com website | access-date=August 1, 2016 | author=Biography.com Editors | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921031518/https://www.biography.com/people/james-alan-mcpherson-38864 | archive-date=September 21, 2018 | url-status=dead }}</ref> His father was a [[master electrician]] (the first African-American so recognized in Georgia),<ref name="pshares.org">Henry, DeWitt (Fall 2008) {{cite journal|url=https://www.pshares.org/issues/fall-2008/about-james-alan-mcpherson|title=About James Alan McPherson |journal=Ploughshares|issue= 106|access-date=August 1, 2016}}</ref> and his mother (born Mabel Small) was a maid.<ref name="nytimes-obit"/> While McPherson was growing up, his father struggled with alcohol and spent time in jail. In the essay "Going Up To Atlanta," McPherson describes the many odd jobs he took on during this time to help support his mother, brother, and sisters.<ref name="pshares.org"/> But it was his discovery of the "colored branch" of the public library that changed his life. When he started reading books, McPherson learned that words, even without pictures, "gave up their secret meanings, spoke of other worlds, made me know that pain was a part of other people's lives."<ref name="pshares.org"/>

He attended [[Morgan State University]] from 1963 to 1964 before receiving his undergraduate degree in history and English from [[Morris Brown College]] in 1965.<ref name="UI">{{cite web|url=https://www.iowalum.com/pulitzerPrize/mcphersontest.cfm|title=James Alan McPherson, 71MFA, Prize Work: Elbow Room; 1980 Pulitzer Prize: Fiction |publisher=University of Iowa Alumni Association|access-date=July 31, 2016}}</ref> In 1968, McPherson received a [[LL.B.]] from [[Harvard Law School]], where he partially financed his studies by working as a janitor.<ref name="biography.com"/>

While at Harvard, McPherson studied fiction writing with Alan Lebowitz in 1967 and worked on his stories when he found some spare time. It was the publication of his short story "Gold Coast" in ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'', following an "open reading" competition they had sponsored, that first brought him public recognition. During this period, McPherson established a close working relationship with Edward Weeks, an editor at ''The Atlantic Monthly,'' which led to McPherson becoming a contributing editor at that magazine in 1969.<ref name="pshares.org"/> His fiction would go on to appear in numerous journals and magazines throughout the following decade. Many of his stories were anthologized, beginning with "Gold Coast" when it appeared in ''[[Best American series|The Best American Stories]]'' in 1969.<ref name="biography.com"/> His first collection of short stories, ''Hue and Cry'', was published by Atlantic Monthly Press that year.

In 1971, he received an [[Master of Fine Arts|M.F.A.]] in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he studied briefly with the short-story writer and novelist [[Richard Yates (novelist)|Richard Yates]].<ref name="pshares.org"/> While studying creative writing, McPherson decided not to practice law; however, he would continue to utilize his legal training in various projects.<ref name="UI"/> In a 1972 ''Atlantic Monthly'' essay, he exposed exploitative business practices against black homeowners, presaging the later work of [[Ta-Nehisi Coates]].<ref name="post-obit">{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/james-alan-mcpherson-first-black-writer-to-win-pulitzer-prize-in-fiction-dies-at-72/2016/07/28/b07edb6c-54c9-11e6-88eb-7dda4e2f2aec_story.html | title=James Alan McPherson, first black writer to win Pulitzer Prize in fiction, dies at 72 | publisher=WP Company. Llc | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=July 28, 2016 | access-date=August 1, 2016 | author=Langer, Emily}}</ref>

During this period in his life, he gained the attention of [[Ralph Ellison]] (1913–1994), who became both a friend and mentor to the young McPherson. In December 1970, McPherson interviewed Ellison<ref name="pshares.org"/> for an ''Atlantic Monthly'' cover story and collaborated with him on the essay "Invisible Man."<ref name="UI"/> This relationship with Ellison would have a lasting influence on his own life and work, as McPherson acknowledges in his essay "Gravitas," which he published in 1999 as both a tribute to the (then) recently deceased writer, and to observe the posthumous publication of Ellison's novel ''[[Juneteenth (novel)|Juneteenth]]'' that same year.<ref name="post-obit"/><ref name="newgeorgia">{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/james-alan-mcpherson-b-1943 | title=James Alan McPherson (b. 1943) | publisher=Georgia Humanities Council & University of Georgia Press | encyclopedia=New Georgia Encyclopedia | date=January 21, 2005 | access-date=August 1, 2016 | author=Cooksey, Thomas}}</ref> McPherson also initiated a friendship with [[Albert Murray (writer)|Albert Murray]] shortly after the publication of Murray's ''The Omni-Americans: Black Experience & American Culture'' (1970).<ref name="pshares.org"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/portfolio/books/book167.html|title=Portfolio at NYU: Albert Murray, The Omni-Americans|publisher=NYU: Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute}}</ref>

===Career===

McPherson taught English and creative writing at the [[University of California, Santa Cruz]] (assistant professor; 1969–1971), the [[Harvard University]] summer school (1972), Morgan State University (assistant professor; 1975–1976) and the [[University of Virginia]] (associate professor; 1976–1981) before joining the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1981,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uCIVCgAAQBAJ|title=Blacks at Harvard: A Documentary History of African-American Experience at Harvard and Radcliffe|first1=Werner|last1=Sollors|first2=Caldwell|last2=Titcomb|first3=Thomas A.|last3=Underwood|date=March 1, 1993|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9780814779736|access-date=August 1, 2016|via=Google Books}}</ref> with whom he was associated for the remainder of his life. He served as acting director of the program for two years following the death of [[Frank Conroy (author)|Frank Conroy]] in 2005.<ref name="pshares.org"/> Following the publication of ''[[Elbow Room (short story collection)|Elbow Room]]'' (his final collection of fiction) in 1977, McPherson primarily focused on his teaching career, with the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' characterizing him as being "only slightly more gregarious than [[J.D. Salinger]]."<ref name="post-obit"/>

He was also a visiting scholar at [[Yale Law School]] (1978–1979) and a fellow at [[Stanford University]]'s [[Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences]] (1997–1998; 2002–2003). Significantly, McPherson lectured in [[Japan]] (at [[Meiji University]] and [[Chiba University]]), a country whose society and culture profoundly affected him.<ref name="atlantic-monthly">{{cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/mcpherso/jambio.htm | title=James Alan McPherson: Contributor Profile | publisher=The Atlantic Monthly Company | work=The Atlantic| date=1976 | access-date=August 1, 2016}}</ref> It was in Japan, he once wrote, where he went to lay down "the burden carried by all black Americans, especially the males."<ref name="post-obit"/>

''Crabcakes: A Memoir'', his first original work since ''Elbow Room'', was published in 1998. His final book (''A Region Not Home: Reflections on Exile'', an essay collection) was published in 2000.