William Melvin Kelley

William Melvin Kelley (born November 1, 1937), is a prominent African American novelist and short-story writer. He is most well-known for the book A Different Drummer. He has won, among other things, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2008 for Lifetime Achievement. William Melvin Kelley has been a writer in residence at the State University of New York at Geneseo and has taught at the New School for Social Research. He currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. ["Contemporary African American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook", Emmanuel S. Nelson, editor. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1999. Page Number: 238. See [http://www.questiaschool.com/read/101383396?title=William%20Melvin%20Kelley web version] (accessed September 16, 2008) ]

He was educated at the Fieldston School in New York and later attended Harvard University (class of 1960), ["Blacks at Harvard," By Werner Sollors, Caldwell Titcomb, Randall Kennedy, Thomas A. Underwood, NYU Press, 1993, ISBN 0814779735, 9780814779736] , where he won the Dana Reed Prize for creative writing.

According to Robert E. Fleming, [excepted from The Oxford Companion to African American Literature (New York, Oxford University Press, 1997), quoted from [http://aalbc.com/authors/williamkelley.htm aalbc.com] (accessed September 16 2008)] "From the beginning of his career in 1962, William Melvin Kelley has employed his distinctive form of Black comedy to examine the absurdities surrounding American racial attitudes."

Books

*"A Different Drummer," Doubleday, 1962; (London, Hutchinson, 1963.)
*"Dancers on the Shore," Doubleday, 1964; (London, Hutchinson, 1965.)
*"A Drop of Patience," Doubleday, 1965 (London, Hutchinson, 1966)
*"Dem," Doubleday, 1967.
*"Dunfords Travels Everywheres," Doubleday, 1970.

References

External Links

* [http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4494/Kelley-William-Melvin.html biography]
* [http://aalbc.com/authors/williamkelley.htm William Kelley at aalbc.com]
*Bio from [http://www.questiaschool.com/read/101383396?title=William%20Melvin%20Kelley Contemporary African American Novelists]
*worldcat id|lccn-n50-48130