Ishmael Reed, African-American novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist, is on a speaking tour in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Israel. Reed, who has authored 18 books, is also a publisher, television producer, editor of magazines and anthologies, and radio and television commentator.

Reed's literary style is best known for its use of parody and satire in attempts to create new myths and to challenge the formal conventions of literary tradition. Reed's works have been hailed as multicultural, revolutionary, vivid, and containing a deep awareness of mythic archetypes.

A lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, Reed has twice been nominated for National Book Awards and once for a Pulitzer Prize. A Reed poem, "Beware Do Not Read This Poem," is one of the Top 20 poems that American students study in literature courses. Professor Harold Bloom of Yale University designated the novel Mumbo Jumbo one of the 500 important books of the Western canon.

Reed's numerous honors include fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a founder of the Before Columbus Foundation, which annually presents the American Book Awards, and a founder of the PEN chapter in Oakland, California (PEN is an international literary membership association).

Reed's articles and book reviews have appeared in many newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Japan Times Weekly, Time Magazine, Newsday Magazine and Ebony Magazine. His novels and essays have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German, Dutch, and Czech.

Born in Tennessee in 1938, Reed lives in Oakland, California.

Novels
Japanese By Spring (Atheneum, 1993)
The Terrible Threes (Atheneum, 1989)
The Terrible Twos (Atheneum, 1982)
Reckless Eyeballing (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
Flight To Canada (Random House, 1976)
The Last Days Of Louisiana Red (Random House, 1974)
Mumbo Jumbo (Doubleday, 1972)
Yellow-Back Radio Broke-Down (Doubleday, 1969)
The Free Lance Pallbearers (Doubleday, 1967)

Poetry
New & Collected Poems (Atheneum, 1989)
Chattanooga (Random House, 1973)
Conjure: Selected Poems, 1963-1970 (University of Massachusetts Press, 1972)
A Secretary To The Spirits (Lagos, Nigeria: NOK Publishers, 1978)

Essays and Non-Fiction Oakland Rhapsody, The Secret Soul Of An American Downtown. Introduction and Commentary by Ishmael Reed and photographs by Richard Nagler (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1995)
Airing Dirty Laundry (Addison-Wesley, 1993)
Writin' Is Fightin' (Atheneum, 1989)
God Made Alaska For The Indians (Garland, 1982)
Shrovetide In Old New Orleans (Doubleday, 1978)

Plays
C Above C Above High C (1997)
The Preacher and the Rapper (1995)
Hubba City (1994, 1989)
Savage Wilds (1990)
Mother Hubbard (1979)

Libretto
Gethsemane Park (a "gospera" - a mix of opera and gospel music). Originally commissioned by The San Francisco Opera, 1994-1995. Premiered April 1, 1998 at the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley, California. Performed April 1999 in San Francisco at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Performed July 2000 in New York City in July 2000 at the Nuyorican Poets Café.

Video
Personal Problems (soap opera directed by Bill Gunn, 1981)
A Word In Edgewise (a conversation with writer Al Young)
The Only Language She Knows (a collaboration with writer Genny Lim)
Savage Wilds(a play originally staged at BMT Theater in Oakland, California; later produced by Miguel Algarin and directed by Rome Neal at New York City's Nuyorican Poets Café)

Music Collaborations
The Wild Gardens of the Loup Garou with poetry by Ishmael Reed and Colleen
McElroy and music by Carman Moore (1981, 1989) Conjure I and Conjure II, music to the texts of Ishmael Reed with music by various composers including Allen Toussaint, David Murray, Taj Mahal, Kip Hanrahan, Lester Bowie, Olu Dara, Carla Bley and Steve Swallow, produced by Kip Hanrahan for American Clave in 1984; reissued by Rounder Records, 1995

Editor
MultiAmerica: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace (Viking, 1997)

General Editor
The HarperCollins Literary Mosaic Series: Native American Literature, A Brief Introduction and Anthology, edited by Gerald Vizenor (1995)
Hispanic American Literature, A Brief Introduction and Anthology, edited by Nicolas Kanellos (1995)
Asian American Literature, A Brief Introduction and Anthology, edited by Shawn Wong (1996)
African American Literature, A Brief Introduction and Anthology, edited by Al Young (1996)
The Before Columbus Poetry Anthology (W.W. Norton, 1991)
The Before Columbus Foundation Prose Anthology (W.W. Norton, 1991)
Califia:The California Poetry(Y'bird Books,1978)
19 Necromancers From Now (Doubleday, 1970)
The Rise, Fall, And . . . ? of Adam Clayton Powell (Bee-Line Books, 1967)

Magazine editor, 1972-present
Konch( http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com)
Quilt (Volumes 1-3)
Y'bird (1972-1976)
Yardbird Reader (Volumes 1-5)

Interviews
Conversations with Ishmael Reed, edited by Bruce Dick and Amritjit Singh (University Press of Mississippi, 1995)

Critical interpretations of Ishmael Reed
The Critical Response to Ishmael Reed, edited by Bruce Allen Dick with the assistance of Pavel Zemliansky (Greenwood Press, 1999)

Collected works
The Reed Reader. (Basic Books, 2000. Includes a new introduction by Reed, excerpts from all of his novels, selected essays, selected published and unpublished poetry, and two plays, Hubba City and The Preacher and the Rapper.)