An Interview with Ishmael Reed

Abstract

Ishmael Reed was born on February 22, 1938, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Buf falo, New York. A novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright, Reed is known for his sharp-tongued, pugilistic satire in which he takes on the hypocrisies of American society. He has particularly focused on this nation's treatment of African Americans, along with its choices in presidents. Critics have praised the jazz sensibility of Reed's work, his verve, and his experimentation with both language and theme. Reed's novels include The Free-Lance Pallbearers (1967); Mumbo Jumbo (1972); The Last Days of Louisiana Red (1974); The Terrible Twos (1982); and The Terrible Threes (1989). His New and Collected Poems was published in 1988. His essay collection, Writin' is Fightin', was also published in 1988. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in creative writing and a Guggenheim Memo rial Foundation award for fiction. His work has been nominated for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Reed has taught at a number of universities, including Harvard, the Univer sity of Washington, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Yale, and for many years he has been a lecturer at the University of Califomia at Berkeley.