Richard Price is an American author, best known for his crime and fiction novels. He was born and raised in the Bronx, where he grew up in a housing project as a middle-class Jewish child. Price is known to have used his experiences growing up in the Bronx as inspiration for his writing.
Price received his education from the Bronx High School of Science, Cornell University, Columbia, and Stanford. He has also taught writing at Columbia, Yale, and New York University. Price has been recognized for his contributions to literature, receiving the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature in 1999.
Price's novels are known for their gritty and realistic portrayal of late 20th century urban America. Several of his novels are set in a fictional northern New Jersey city called Dempsy. His first novel, "The Wanderers," was published in 1974 and was adapted into a movie in 1979. His novel "Clockers," published in 1992, was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was later made into a movie directed by Spike Lee.
In addition to his novels, Price has also written numerous screenplays, including "The Color of Money," for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and "Sea of Love." He has also written for the HBO series "The Wire" and was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series in 2009. Price is known for his appearances in cameo roles in the films he writes. He has also published articles in various publications such as The New York Times, Esquire Magazine, The New Yorker, and Village Voice.