James Alan McPherson  (b. 1943) A Loaf of Bread LINKS No links found. BIOGRAPHY James Alan McPherson (b. 1943)  McPherson was born in Savannah, Georgia, attended Morgan State University (1963–1964), Morris Brown College (B.A., 1965), Harvard University (LL.B., 1968), and the University of Iowa, where he earned an M.F.A. (1969). Since 1981, he has been a professor of English at the University of Iowa. In 1965, he received first prize in the Atlantic short story contest. In 1969, his first collection of short stories, Hue and Cry, appeared. His many honors include the literature award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1970), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1972–1973). In 1978, he received a Pulitzer Prize for his second collection of short stories, Elbow Room. His writing achievements earned him a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981. McPherson has been widely praised for his incisive depictions of ordinary people, mostly black, who attempt to cope with the indignities and desperations of everyday life.