Ishmael Reed on Black Feminist Reception, 'The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda,' and More, at Public Books

An interview with Ishmael Reed is up at Public Books! Keisha N. Blain talks to Reed about his past projects, greatest accomplishments, critical reception of his work, and, of course, his play, "The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda": "...[W]e’ve made them back up. They’re now saying that he wasn’t an abolitionist, their original sales pitch, but was opposed to slavery. Opposed to slavery? He sided with French slaveholders against the revolution in Haiti." More:

KNB: What projects are you currently working on? From where do you draw inspiration?

IR: My new book of essays was published in Canada, which is where, in 1856, Benjamin Drew organized a book in which fugitive slaves were able to say what they couldn’t say here. My new book of poetry, Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues, will be published in March. I’m finishing up The Terrible Fours, which follows The Terrible Twos and The Terrible Threes.

KNB: What books are you currently reading? Who are your favorite contemporary authors?

IR: I read mostly nonfiction. However, I used books by Toni Morrison, Margaret Walker, and James Baldwin in my last class at the California College of the Arts. As a novel about slavery, Jubilee hasn’t been surpassed. There will be a delay in classifying Toni’s Tar Baby as a classic because it doesn’t obey the feminist party line... 

Read on at Public Books.