David Wright (born 1964) is an American writer who grew up in Borger, Texas. He holds a B.A. from Carleton College, and an M.F.A. 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.
Away Running, a novel (Orca Book Publishers, 2016). www.awayrunning.comFire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers (Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner, 2001; Oxford University Press paper, 2002). www.fireonbeach.comRescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Lifesavers (2010). www.rescuemenfilm.comThe Village VoiceCallalooGastronomicaPaste MagazineAfrican American ReviewThe CLA JournalThe Journal of Negro HistoryNaval HistoryNorth Dakota QuarterlyReflections in InkPainted Bride QuarterlyShenandoahSixty-fourThe Southern ReviewVirginia English Bulletin"The Pea Island Story," co-written and co-produced with Stephanie Frederic and David Zoby. Aired on BET Tonight, Feb. 1999.
2011: J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholar, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.2009: North Carolina Humanities Council, Large Grant, for production of Rescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Lifesavers.2005: Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, University of Texas and the Texas Institute of Letters.2004: Tennessee Williams Scholar, Sewanee Writers’ Conference.2000: National Association of Black Journalists, Salute to Excellence Award, First Prize for a Television Feature News-Story, "The Pea Island Story".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".1997-1998: Chancellor’s Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship, Afro-American Studies and Research Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.1994: Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award, the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, Fairfax, VA.1993: Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship, Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies, Mystic, CT. 