Graduate Studies Events
Ishmael Reed (Friday seminar guest speaker)
MFA Writers' Series
Friday, October 31, 3:30 pm
Writers' Studio, San Francisco Campus
195 de Haro at 15th Street
Contact: Teresa Walsh, program manager, 415.703.9237 or email
For additional information, including a comprehensive list of speakers and extended bios (if applicable) see the MFA in Writing Program's Writers' Series.
After the lecture the MFA Writing Program will have a pizza reading where writers are encouraged to share their work.
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Ishmael Reed is an internationally renowned, award-winning novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist with more than 25 published books and six plays to his credit. He also is a publisher, editor of numerous anthologies and magazines, television producer, radio and television commentator, teacher, and lecturer.
New and Collected Poems, 1964–2006 (Carroll & Graf, 2006) was recently released in paperback and New and Collected Poems, 1964–2007 (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2007) was listed by the New York Times Book Review as one of the four best books of poetry published in 2006. The latter title also received the California Gold Medal in Poetry by the Commonwealth Club in June 2007.
Two of Reed's books have been nominated for National Book Awards, and his book of poetry, Conjure: Selected Poems, 1963–1970 (1972), (University of Massachusetts Press, 1970) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
In addition to receiving a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1998, Reed's other awards include writing fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts, as well as New York State Council of the Arts fellowships for publishing and video production. He also received the Langston Hughes Medal, awarded by City College of New York (1995);
Reed was a lecturer at UC Berkeley for 26 years. He also taught at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Yale.
Reed currently lives in Oakland's inner city with his wife, Carla Blank, a writer, educator, and director.
Read Ishmael Reed's extended bio.