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David Ritz

From David Ritz’s website:

As a professional writer for the past 40 years, my main focus has been the collaborative autobiography. I've written thirty-six such books and am currently working with Willie Nelson on his life story.

I've written three independent biographies of which Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin is the most recent.

As a novelist, my books include Search for Happiness, Sanctified Blues, The Man Who Brought the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn and Blue Notes Under a Green Felt Hat.

As a lyricist, my songs include "Sexual Healing," co-written with Marvin Gaye. In addition, I've collaborated on songs with Janet Jackson, Smokey Robinson and Narada Michael Walden.

My articles have appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Essence, People, US, Art Connoisseur and TV Guide.

As an essayist, I've written some seventy sets of liner notes for albums and discs, ranging from Sammy Davis, Jr. to Donny Hathaway to Michael Jackson.

I've been honored with a Grammy (Best Liner Notes) and, on four occasions, the Ralph Gleason Music Book Award (for collaborations with BB King, Etta James, the Neville Brothers and producer Jerry Wexler). I received the 2013 ASCAP Timothy White Award for outstanding musical biography for When I Left Home, the story of Buddy Guy.

I live in Los Angeles with Roberta, my wife of 47 years.

More about David Ritz: http://www.ritzwrites.com/home.html

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