Jake Lamar (born in 1961 in

The Bronx, New York City The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

) is an African-American writer, novelist, playwright, and cultural criticThe Library of Congress
/ref> living in Paris. After graduating from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, Lamar spent six years writing for ''Time magazine''. He has lived in Paris since 1993 and teaches

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

. At age 30, he published a memoir, ''Bourgeois Blues'', in which he evoked his relationship with his father. With it, he won the Lyndhurst Prize. In 1993, he moved to Paris in the 18th arrondissement where he still resides. After a near fatal heart problem in 2015, Lamar wrote an article in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' on the quality of the

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

system of

health care in France The French health care system is one of universal health care largely financed by government national health insurance. In its 2000 assessment of world health care systems, the World Health Organization found that France provided the "best ove ...

. His most recent work, ''Viper's Dream'' (No Exit Press, 2023) is a

crime novel Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a profession ...

set in the

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

world of

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

between the years 1936 and 1961. A version of ''Viper's Dream'' was broadcast (in French) as a 10-episode radio play in 2019. That production included many jazz tracks of the period. ''Viper's Dream'' was published in French as a novel by Rivages/Noir in 2021. ''Viper's Dream'' was published in the US by Crooked Lane Books in 2023. In July 2024, ''Viper's Dream'' received the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger Award. In December 2024, ''Das schwarze Chamäleon'', the German translation of his novel ''If 6 Were 9'', won the German Crime Fiction Award in the international category.

Fiction in English

* ''Bourgeois Blues'' (Summit Books 1991) * ''The Last Integrationist'' (Crown 1996) * ''Close to the Bone'' (Crown 1999) * ''If 6 were 9'' (Crown 2001) * ''Rendezvous Eighteenth'' (Minotaur 2003) * ''Ghosts of Saint-Michel'' (Minotaur 2006) * ''Viper's Dream'' (No Exit Press 2023)

Fiction in French

* ''Le caméléon noir'' (Rivages/Noir 2003) * ''Nous avions un rêve'' (Rivages/Noir 2005) * ''New York Transfer'' (Biro 2007) * ''Rendez-vous dans le 18ème'' (Rivages/Thriller 2007) * ''Les Fantômes de Saint-Michel'' (Rivages/Thriller 2009) * ''Confessions d'un fils modèle'' (Payot/Rivages 2009) * ''Postérité'' (Rivages 2014) * ''Viper's Dream'' (Rivages/Noir 2021)

Plays

* ''Brothers in Exile'' * ''Brothers in Exile'' (radio play) * ''Viper's Dream'' (radio play)

Awards

* Deutscher Krimipreis, 2024 (for his novel ''If 6 were 9'') * Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger Award, 2024 (for his novel ''Viper's Dream'') * Lyndhurst Prize * Centre National du Livre grant (for his novel ''Postérité'') * France's Grand Prize for best foreign thriller (for his novel ''The Last Integrationist'') * Beaumarchais fellowship (for his play ''Brothers in Exile'')

References

External links

* https://jakelamar.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamar, Jake 20th-century American novelists American art critics 1961 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American film critics American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Harvard College alumni