Draft:David Black (writer)

David Black is a journalist, novelist, biographer, and screenwriter. His work has been honored by organizations and publications including the American Society of Magazine Editors, National Association of Science Writers, The New York Times, Mystery Writers of America, National Endowment for the Arts, and Writers Guild of America. He is also listed in Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors.

Early life and education
David Black, the son of Zelda and Henry Black, was born in Boston, MA, on April 21, 1945 and raised in Springfield, MA. He graduated from Springfield’s Classical High School in 1963 and Amherst College in Amherst, MA in 1967. At Amherst, he was a student of poet and playwright Archibald MacLeish, about whom he later wrote the essay “Me and MacLeish”. Mr. Black received his MFA. from Columbia University in 1971.

Career
Black began his career as a journalist and has contributed articles to periodicals including Atlantic Monthly, Cosmopolitan, Granta, Harper’s, New York Times Magazine, New York, Playboy, New Times, Rolling Stone and the Village Voice. His more than one hundred articles cover subjects related to arts and culture such as “Commune Children,” [New Times, April 1976]; along with long--form investigative pieces such as “The Making of a Doctor,” [New York Times Magazine 5/23/82]; and the multi-award-winning two-part article “The Plague Years” in Rolling Stone.

He has written six novels--Like Father, Minds, Peep Show, An Impossible Life, The Extinction Event, and Fast Shuffle-- and six nonfiction books that represent a range of subject matter from biography to medicine to true crime: Ekstasy, Murder at the Met, The King of Fifth Avenue: The Fortunes of August Belmont;  Medicine Man, The Plague Years, and Ripped Apart.

While continuing to write books and articles, in the late 1980s Black expanded his career to work in film and television as a writer and producer on acclaimed television programs and series. His credits include Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Law and Order, the Cosby Mysteries, Cop Shop, CSI Miami, The Education of Max Bickford, and 100 Centre Street, as well as two movies: Legacy of Lies and The Confession.

Black’s career also encompasses teaching. Among various academic institutions, he taught at Mount Holyoke College, subsequently writing an essay, “Baldwin and Me,” about his colleague there, James Baldwin ; he conducted seminars at Harvard University’s Kirkland House, where he was a scholar in residence; and taught screenwriting at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Awards and honors
Black has been honored for his achievements in fiction, biography, journalism, and screen writing. His short Story, “Laud,” published by the Atlantic Monthly in January 1973, received an Atlantic “First” Award. His novel Like Father was listed as one of the seven best novels of the year by the Washington Post in 1978. He received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1980, and the following year, 1981, his biography The King of Fifth Avenue was named a New York Times Notable Book. “The Plague Years,” a two-part investigative article about the AIDS epidemic published in Rolling Stone in 1985 won a National Magazine Award for Reporting from the American Society of Magazine Writers and a Science in Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers. That same year, Murder at the Met, Black’s nonfiction thriller about the death of a young violinist in New York City, received an Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America for the best book of fact-based crime.

Black has been recognized by the Writers Guild of America for his work as a screen writer on both Hill Street Blues and Law and Order, two television programs named in 2013 to the Guild’s list of best-written 101 television series. Black wrote and produced for Law and Order in 1992 and 1998 when the show was nominated for an Emmy for best dramatic series. His Law and Order episode, "Carrier," was nominated in 1999 for the Edgar Award for best episode in a TV series by the Mystery Writers of America. In 2000, Black won the Writers Guild of America Award for best adapted long-form screenplay for “The Confession.”

Personal life
Black married Deborah Hughes Keen in 1968, and they subsequently divorced. In 1996, Black married Barbara Weisberg. He has three adult children.

Black is a member of the Century Association, the Players, and the Explorers Club.

Written works

 * Impossible Life about Jewish gangsters
 * New York Times review
 * The Extinction Event
 * Fast Shuffle
 * As a Scholar in Residence at Harvard University’s Kirkland House, Black was recognized for his “Contribution to the education of Undergraduates at Harvard University” and gave seminars in screenwriting, inviting notable guest speakers from the film and television industry to address his students.
 * Like Father
 * The King of Fifth Avenue: The Fortunes of August Belmont
 * New York Times review
 * New York Times Notable Book 1981
 * The Plague Years: A Chronicle of AIDS, the Epidemic of Our Times

Television
Black was recognized for his work as a screen writer on both Hill Street Blues and Law & Order, named in 2013 among the best-written 101 television series by the Writers Guild of America.

Black, in collaboration with journalist Ed Zuckerman, wrote the premier episode of Law & Order, which aired in 1990.
 * Hill Street Blues
 * Law & Order
 * TV Guide's Top 100 Episodes of All Times: "Life Choices"
 * "Nullification," inspired by militia actions such as Ruby Ridge, that dealt with the concept of jury nullification. Aired in 1997, it received an American Bar Association’s Certificate of Merit for “a noteworthy contribution to public understanding of the law and American legal system” [t/k LA Times one of Golden Age best TV episodes]
 * 100 Centre Street (Sidney Lumet)
 * The Education of Max Bickford (Richard Dreyfuss)
 * Monk
 * CSI: Miami
 * Miami Vice
 * TV movie: Legacy of Lies
 * The Confession starring Alec Baldwin, Ben Kingsley, Amy Irving
 * Writers' Guild of America Award for adapted long form television screenplay

Selected articles

 * "Me and MacLeish," City Journal Magazine July 25, 2020
 * "Baldwin and Me," City Journal Magazine, Autumn 2017

Honors
Black's work has been honored by organizations and publications including the American Bar Association, the National Association of Science Writers, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Writers Guild of America, Mystery Writers of America, and the New York Times.