Conversations with Leon Forrest

by Dana A. Williams (Editor)

Overview

Leon Forrest (1937-1997) was among the most innovative and ambitious African American fiction writers of the twentieth century. His books-which include novels There Is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, Divine Days, The Bloodworth Orphans, and Two Wings to Veil My Face, and the posthumously published novella Meteor in the Madhouse-fused classical mythology, realism, and African American history and culture. Largely set in his native Chicago, Forrest's novels comprise an oeuvre of powerful urban modernism.

Conversations with Leon Forrest collects interviews ranging from 1975 to 1997. Forrest discusses his literary influences (William Faulkner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Thomas Hardy, Dylan Thomas), the significance of both Catholicism and Baptist impulses in his writing, and the intersection between politics and aesthetics in black literature and culture. Music-jazz, folk, blues, and gospel-also played an important role in developing Forrest's aesthetic.

Throughout the collection, Forrest's wit, erudition, and candor are evident. His moral concerns, disciplined work ethic, and stylis-tic invention are explored. Conversations with Leon Forrest is a valuable introduction to a writer who was recognized as a literary genius by Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781578069903
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	08/07/2007
Series:	Literary Conversations Series
Pages:	141
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

Dana A. Williams is associate professor of African American literature at Howard University. She is author of "In the Light of Likeness-Transformed" The Literary Art of Leon Forrest and, with Sandra Shannon, the editor of August Wilson and Black Aesthetics.

Table of Contents

Introduction     vii
Chronology     xv
"If He Changed My Name": An Interview with Leon Forrest   Maria K. Mootry     1
Leon Forrest at the University of Kentucky: On The Bloodworth Orphans   John G. Cawelti     13
Divine Days: An Interview with Leon Forrest   Eugene Redmond     27
The Mythic City: An Interview with Leon Forrest   Kenneth W. Warren     43
The Mythos of Gumbo: Leon Forrest Talks about Divine Days   Madhu Dubey     63
Leon Forrest at the University of Kentucky: On There Is a Tree More Ancient than Eden   John G. Cawelti     80
Angularity: An Interview with Leon Forrest   Keith Byerman     92
The Yeast of Chaos: An Interview with Leon Forrest   Molly McQuade     110
"Beyond the Hard Work and Discipline": An Interview with Leon Forrest   Charles H. Rowell     119
Index     139