James McGirt

James Ephraim McGirt (1874-1930) was an African-American poet, publisher, and businessman.

Life
McGirt was born and raised on a family farm in Robeson County, North Carolina. He attended public school in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1895 he graduated from Bennett College, a Methodist college near Greensboro.

He published his first book of poems in 1899, revised and expanded in 1900, and a second collection in 1901. In 1902 he moved to Philadelphia, and in 1903 launched McGirt's Magazine, a monthly which "featured a wide range of skilled African American writers, including articles by Anna Julia Cooper and W.E.B. Du Bois, poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and fiction by John E. Bruce and Kelly Miller." He published a third volume of poetry in 1905, and a collection of short stories the following year.

Due to declining sales, McGirt converted his magazine to a quarterly in 1909, and suspended publication the following year. McGirt moved back to Greensboro, becoming a successful realtor.

Recognition
McGirt was inducted by the McGirt was inducted by the North Carolina Writers’ Network into its Literary Hall of Fame in 2004.

Poetry

 * Avenging the Maine, a Drunken A.B., and other poems. 1899
 * revised and expanded, 1900.
 * Some Simple Songs and a few more ambitious attempts. 1901.
 * For Your Sweet Sake. 1906.

Fiction

 * The Triumphs of Ephraim. 1907.

Edited

 * McGirt's Magazine. 1903-1910.

<smallExcept where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Oxford Companion to African American Literature''.