Bijan C. Bayne is an award-winning Washington-based freelance writer, and author of “Sky Kings: Black Pioneers of Professional Basketball“, which was named to the Suggested Reading List of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004. The book is also cited in “Booktalks Plus: Motivating Teens to Read” by Lucy Schall. In July 2002, Bayne, who speaks Spanish, won the Robert Peterson Research Award for his presentation “The Struggle of the Latin American Ballplayer”, given at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. He is a founding member of the tourism consulting group The Travel Educators (www.traveleducators.com) and also of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. in August 2009, he served as moderater for the Filmmakers’ Panel at the seventh annual Martha’s Vineyard African America Film Festival (on the topic “Black Film In The Age of Obama”). Bayne is the sports travel correspondent for the Traveln On Radio Show (http://www.traveln-on.com). He served on the editorial board of Hotel Executive magazine. In February 2008, Bayne received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his sports research from the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation. He has written biographies for volumes such as Great Athletes (Second Revised Edition, Salem Press, Sept. 2009), The Encyclopedia of Women and Baseball (McFarland 2006), the African American National Biography (Oxford University Press, Jan. 2008). His essay on the early NBA will be published in the forthcoming The Forties in America by Salem Press. Bayne hosts the golf vacation segment “The Back Nine” on The Restaurant, Food and Travel Show on WVNJ 1160 AM, with Ira Kleinman. http://www.wvnj.com/.
Bayne is a contributor to The Travel Planners radio show (www.kevinandsuetravel.com). His chapter on Black baseball in North Carolina appears in the book “Baseball in the Carolinas” (McFarland 2002). He was a contribuutor to “Basketball: A Biographical Dictionary” (Greenwood 2005). In addition to appearing in the upcoming documentary on the historic International League Baltimore Orioles, “The Forgotten Birds”, Bayne has been interviewed and/or quoted by “The Washington Post”, The Atlantic, AOL Fanhouse, Rack magazine, Slate, “The Philadelphia Inquirer”, SLAM magazine, OregonLive.com, and on radio programs in Puerto Rico, New York, Boston, Providence, Durham, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. A member of United States Basketball Writers Association, his essay on schoolyard basketball appears in the anthology “Basketball in America” (Haworth 2005). Bayne has been a writing instructor in afterschool programs and at adult education centers, as well as a public relations writer. He is currently at work researching a documentary film, and has written for TheRoot.com- a Washington Post/Newsweek web affiliate, Washingtonian, and Diversity Issues in Higher Education.
Bayne has guest lectured on the social significance of the life of Jackie Robinson each year since 1996 at The George Washington University, at classes, and events such as Charter Day 1996 and Unity Week in 1999. His travel articles have appeared in AAA Horizons, Family Digest, Atlanta Goodlife, Ohio magazine, Arrington’s Inn Traveler, and Hotel Executive, and his book reviews have been featured in “Washington Post Book World”, “The Boston Herald”, Wild River Review, and The Crisis. He is a columnist for Sports Central, and has served as a consultant for film, television and corporate clients such as The Cancun Convention and Visitors Bureau, Aviva Kempner, Jennifer Lawson, and Jay Smith, Spike Lee, Nike, the books “Wilt”, and “Spinning The Globe” (the latter about the Harlem Globetrotters), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s “On The Shoulders of Giants”, Jump Trading, and CINE. He is Washington publicist for the award-winning film, “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg”. On June 10, 2006, Bayne was a panelist at the annual conference of Washington Independent Writers, on the topic of marketing as an independent writer. He is an Executive Board member, and Media Relations Director of the Association for Professional Basketball Research.
Bayne is a frequent arts and sports history contributor to “The Bay State Banner”, where he has written reviews of books about Thelonious Monk and Louis Armstrong. He is a member of the Southern Documentary Fund. He is a co-creator of the website dedicated to the history of basketball in Washington, D.C. (www.dcbasketball.com) and serves as secretary of the organization DC Basketball. Mr. Bayne is available for book signings, show guest appearances, film research, panels, and speaking engagements (please contact bijanc@hotmail.com or 240-687-5656).
