Robert Ward (novelist & screenwriter)

Infobox Writer
name = Robert Ward
occupation = Novelist, Journalist, Television Writer
nationality = American
notableworks = Red Baker, Four Kinds of Rain, The King of Cards
subject = Crime fiction
website = http://www.robert-ward.com/

Robert Ward is an American writer. He is a native of Baltimore currently living in Los Angeles and has numerous credits to his name such as novelist, teacher, journalist, screenwriter, producer and actor.

Biography

Novelist

Shedding Skin was published in 1972 and took five years to complete. Ward worked on it for two years while living in a hippie commune in the Haight-Ashbury disctict of San Francisco. He destroyed the first draft of the manuscript before moving back to Baltimore where he began working on it once again. In 1968, in the aftermath of the assanation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he escaped the North Ave. riots in Baltimore with only his manuscript and guitar before his block was burned down.

Some chapters from Shedding Skin were published in the Winter 1970 Carolina Quarterly. It was published by Harper & Row in 1972. After publication it won the National Endowment of the Arts award for first novel of exceptional merit.

Cattle Annie and Little Britches was adapted into a movie in 1981 that was directed by Lamont Johnson. Ward adapted his own novel. It saw some favorable responses from critics, including praise from The New York Times, before being pulled from theaters after only one week.

After the publication of Red Baker it was optioned and Ward wrote a screenplay for it. David Milch read the screenplay and offered Ward a job on Hill Street Blues. The episode "Oh You Kid" was based on the pitch.

Red Baker won the Pen West Award as The Best Novel Published in the United States in 1985.

Grace is a fictional biography of his grandmother, a Baltimore activist in th Civil Rights Movement.

Four Kinds of Rain was a 2006 nominee for the Hammett Prize.

Ward next novel is titled Total Immunity and will be coming out in 2009. It will be the first book in a series with an F.B.I. protagonist, Agent Jack Harper.

Personal life

Robert Ward was born in Baltimore, Maryland. When he was 15 years old he went to live with his paternal grandmother, Grace, a local social activist. He did his undergraduate work at Towson State University before earning his MFA in writing at the University of Arkansas. [ [http://www.examiner.com/a-597132~Ward_uses_his_Baltimore_voice_in_L_A_.html] ] While living in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Franiciso he began working on his first novel, Shedding Skin, before moving back to Baltimore for it's completion. After the publication of his fourth novel, Red Baker, in 1985 he was approached by David Milch and offered a job to write for Hill Street Blues. He continues to write and produce television shows and movies as well publish novels.

Bibliography

Novels

*Shedding Skin (1972)
*Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1977)
*The Sandman (1978)
*Red Baker (1985)
*The King of Cards (1993)
*The Cactus Garden (1995)
*Grace (1998)
*Four Kinds of Rain (2006)
*Total Immunity (forthcoming 2009)

Filmography

Writer

*Cattle Annie and Little Britches [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082145/] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 6.6 "Oh You Kid" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/oh-you-kid/episode/52024/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 6.10 "The Virgin and the Turkey" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/the-virgin-and-the-turkey/episode/52028/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 6.11 "Two Easy Pieces" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/two-easy-pieces/episode/52029/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 6.12 "Say It as it Plays" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/say-it-as-it-plays/episode/52030/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 6.14 "Scales of Justice" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/scales-of-justice/episode/52032/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 6.18 "Iced Coffey" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/iced-coffey/episode/52036/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 6.21 "Slum Enchanted Evening" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/slum-enchanted-evening/episode/52039/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 7.3 "The Best Defense" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/the-best-defense/episode/52043/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 7.7 "Amazing Grace" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/amazing-grace/episode/52047/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 7.8 "Falling From Grace" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/falling-from-grace/episode/52048/summary.html] ]
*Hill Street Blues episode 7.17 "The Cookie Crumbles" [ [http://www.tv.com/hill-street-blues/the-cookie-crumbles/episode/52057/summary.html] ]
*Miami Vice episode 5.2 "Redemption in Blood: Part 4" [ [http://www.tv.com/miami-vice/show/544/episode_guide.html&printable=1] ]
*Miami Vice episode 5.7 "Asian Cut" [ [http://www.tv.com/miami-vice/show/544/episode_guide.html&printable=1] ]
*Miami Vice episode 5.8 "Hard Knocks" [ [http://www.tv.com/miami-vice/show/544/episode_guide.html&printable=1] ]
*Miami Vice episode 5.11 "Miami Squeeze" [ [http://www.tv.com/miami-vice/show/544/episode_guide.html&printable=1] ]
*Miami Vice episode 5.12 "Jack of All Trades" [ [http://www.tv.com/miami-vice/show/544/episode_guide.html&printable=1] ]
*Miami Vice episode 5.15 "Over the Line" [ [http://www.tv.com/miami-vice/show/544/episode_guide.html&printable=1] ]
*Miami Vice episode 5.19 "Miracle Man" [ [http://www.tv.com/miami-vice/show/544/episode_guide.html&printable=1] ]
*Miami Vice episode 5.20 "Leap of Faith" [ [http://www.tv.com/miami-vice/show/544/episode_guide.html&printable=1] ]
*C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf" [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094823/] ]
*Brotherhood of the Gun" [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101512/] ]
*Green Dolphin Beat [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109937/] ]
*New York Undercover episode 5.11 "Olde Thyme Religon" [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0659827/] ]
*New York Undercover episode 5.12 "All in the Family" [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0659781/] ]
*New York Undercover episode 5.15 "You Get No Respect" [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0659864/] ]
*New York Undercover episode 5.19 "Blondes Have More Fun" [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0659785/] ]

External links

* [http://www.robert-ward.com/ Robert Wards official web site]
* [http://www.bookspotcentral.com/2007/01/on-the-spot-at-bookspotcentral-robert-ward/ Interview with Robert Ward]
* [http://www.bookspotcentral.com/2007/01/book-review-four-kinds-of-rain/ Recent review of Four Kinds of Rain]
* [http://www.bookspotcentral.com/2006/12/book-review-red-baker/ Recent review of Red Baker]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,957781,00.html 1985 Time Magazine review of Red Baker]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E2DB173BF937A35756C0A963948260 1985 New York Times review of Red Baker]
* [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A02EFD61138F936A25756C0A967948260 1981 New York Times review of the movie Cattle Annie and Little Britches]

References