TYREE, Omar (Rashad)

(Urban Griot)

PERSONAL: Born in Philadelphia, PA; married; children: Ameer, one other son. Education: Attended University of Pittsburgh; Howard University, B.S. (with honors), 1991.

ADDRESSES: Home—New Castle, DE. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER: Author, publisher, lecturer, and performance poet. Capital Spotlight (weekly newspaper), Washington, DC, reporter, assistant editor, and advertising salesperson; News Dimensions (weekly newspaper), chief reporter; freelance writer; founder of MARS Productions, beginning 1993. Has lectured to organizations, at colleges, high schools and community events; has appeared on television programs, including For Black Men Only and America's Black Forum.

WRITINGS:

Colored, on White Campus: The Education of a Racial World (novel), MARS Productions (Washington, DC), 1992, published as Battlezone: The Struggle to Survive the American Institution, MARS Productions (Washington, DC), 1994.

Flyy-Girl (novel), MARS Productions (Washington, DC), 1993.

Capital City: The Chronicles of a D.C. Underworld, MARS Productions (Washington, DC), 1994.

A Do-Right Man (novel), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1997.

Single Mom (novel), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1998.

For the Love of Money (sequel to Flyy Girl), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

Just Say No!, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

Leslie, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

(Under pseudonym Urban Griot) College Boy, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Diary of a Groupie, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.

(Under pseudonym Urban Griot) Cold Blooded: A Hardcore Novel, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including Washington View Magazine and Washington Post; contributor to Testimony: Young African-Americans on Self-Discovery and Black Identity, Beacon Press, 1995.

ADAPTATIONS: Several of Tyree's books have been adapted as audiobooks.

SIDELIGHTS: Omar Tyree has been persistent, and successful, in his efforts to become a published author and messenger for the experience of black America. He has lectured to organizations, at colleges, high schools, and community events; in addition, his commentaries have occasionally been televised. His writings have appeared in periodicals such as Washington View Magazine and the Washington Post, as well as in works of fiction. Tyree's focus is on sharing his beliefs and the realties associated with being a black person in the United States. Through Tyree's own publishing company, MARS Productions, the author was able to release some of his first books. He has self-published several novels, among them Flyy-Girl, which has since been released by New York-based Simon & Schuster.

As Library Journal contributor Shirley Gibson Coleman explained, Tyree's novel A Do-Right Man "gives an honest if tiring interpretation of a black man struggling to do right" and provides readers with a "rare view of the true-to-life emotions of black males." The "hip-to-the-punch" and "feel-good" novel is saved from sinking to "fairy tale" status, concluded a Publishers Weekly reviewer, by "Tyree's good humor and ear for dialogue."

Another of Tyree's early novels, Single Mom, "reads mostly like an impassioned essay or sociology textbook," according to Nancy Pearl in Library Journal. Of Single Mom, a Publishers Weekly writer declared: "In one way or another, each of the figures is a mouthpiece for responsible fatherhood or the difficulties of single motherhood."

Tyree's breakthrough novel, Flyy-Girl, earned its author a loyal readership but received mixed reviews from critics. The novel follows Tracy Ellison Grant, a middle-class Philadelphian, through her adolescence. In Publishers Weekly a reviewer described the novel as an "unremarkable African American coming-of-age story" that suffers from "a crucial lack of depth." According to the critic, "teenage chatter" overwhelms Tyree's message, rendering the novel ultimately "trite and superficial." Despite a "mildly rushed ending," Shirley Gibson Coleman found more to like, writing in her Library Journal review that Flyy-Girl is "entertaining" and displays dialogue that is "true to life." In stark contrast to the Publishers Weekly critic's contention that Tyree's novel is "unremarkable," Coleman ranked Flyy-Girl among "the best" black coming-of-age stories the critic had "read in a long time." However, a Kirkus Reviews contributor echoed some of the same criticisms as had the Publishers Weekly reviewer, citing Flyy-Girl as a "morality tale" and a "shapeless docudrama," and indicating that it contains "some silly Afrocentric theorizing."

Enhanced by what Coleman described as Tyree's "skillful use of dialog," For the Love of Money continues the story started in Flyy-Girl, and finds Tracy, now age twenty-eight and an up-and-coming actress and successful script writer, clearly on her way to material success. With her love life in a current state of disrepair, she returns to Germantown, Philadelphia, but finds herself out of step with old friends. Ultimately, a relationship is rekindled with an old boyfriend in a novel that a Publishers Weekly dubbed "rowdy and predictable." Still, the reviewer added, Tracy's "adventures provide cool commentary on ambition, love, friendship, and the price of fame." Praising For the Love of Money as a "cogent and deftly constructed tale," Glenn Townes noted in Black Issues Book Review that Tyree's savvy protagonist "maintains her go-on girl attitude" despite personal setbacks.

Other novels from Tyree, who has averaged about a book per year, include 2002's Leslie, which focuses on a nineteen-year-old New Orleans college student whose interest in the voodoo traditions of her Haitian father ultimately lead her to disaster. "Tyree has woven complex characters that overcome seemlingly hopeless circumstances," noted Booklist contributor Lillian Lewis, describing the three friends who manage to improve their lot in life while Leslie, with all her advantages, travels her doomed downward spiral. In Ebony, a contributor described Leslie as "a modern horror story with social commentary on the effects of poverty." Diary of a Groupie, released in 2003, focuses, in characteristic Tyree fashion, on attractive, sexy, and ambitious Tabitha Night, whose social connections are channeled by a private investigator hoping to reveal the lewd practices of a well-known actor. Noting that in the novel "nothing is what it seems," Black Issues Book Review critic Curtis Stephens praised Diary of a Groupie as "absorbing and spellbinding."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, September, 2000, Glenn Townes, review of For the Love of Money, p. 22; September, 2001, p. 15; July-August, 2002, pp. 40-44; July-August, 2003, Curtis Stephen, review of Diary of a Groupie, p. 55.

Book, July-August, 2002, Chris Barsanti, review of Leslie, p. 82.

Booklist, October 1, 1996, p. 309; June 1, 2000, Lillian Lewis, review of Leslie, p. 1862; February 15, 2000, p. 1082; June 1, 2001, Lillian Lewis, review of Just Say No!, p. 1850; July, 2002, p. 1824.

Ebony, October 1, 1997, pp. 1481-1482; November, 2002, review of Leslie, pp. 18-19.

Essence, August, 2001, p. 64.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1996, pp. 1090-1091; October 1, 1997, pp. 1481-1482; June 1, 2002, p. 767; May 1, 2003, review of Diary of a Groupie, pp. 640-641.

Library Journal, September 15, 1996, p. 98; November 15, 1997, p. 78; September 15, 1998, pp. 114-115; October 15, 1999, p. 108; July 3, 2000, review of For the Love of Money, p. 49; August, 2000, p. 163.

Publishers Weekly, August 26, 1996, p. 76; October 6, 1997, p. 74; August 17, 1998, p. 46; September 20, 1999, p. 73; July 3, 2000, review of For the Love of Money, p. 49; August 6, 2001, p. 62; July 29, 2002, pp. 53-54; May 12, 2003, review of Diary of a Groupie, p. 43.

ONLINE

African-American Literature Book Club Web Site, http://www.aalbc.com/ (August 20, 2004), "Omar Tyree."

Awareness Magazine Online, http://www.awarenessmagazine.net/ (August 20, 2004), Rebecca Shepherd, interview with Tyree.

Omar Tyree Home Page, http://www.omartyree.com (August 20, 2004).*