Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Wideman, John Edgar - John Edgar Wideman with Charles H. Rowell (interview date Winter 1990)

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John Edgar Wideman with Charles H. Rowell (interview date Winter 1990)

SOURCE: An interview with John Edgar Wideman, in Callaloo, Vol. 13, No. 1, Winter, 1990, pp. 47-61.

[Rowell is the editor of Callaloo and chairman of the department of English language and literature at the University of Virginia. In the following interview, which was conducted on October 17, 1989, Wideman discusses his life, his writing, and the issues and experiences that inform his work.]

[Rowell:] John, what brought you to writing and publishing creative texts? When you were a student at the University of Pennsylvania, you were captain of the basketball team. Then later you became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. How did you resist becoming a professional basketball player? In other words, what made you take the risk of becoming a creative writer?

[Wideman:] Well, for me, I guess, it wasn't really a risk. Writing was something I had done...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. James W. Coleman (essay date March 1985)
   2. Jacqueline Berben (essay date Fall 1985)
   3. John Bennion (essay date Spring/Summer 1986)
   4. Gary Dretzka (review date 29 November 1987)
   5. Harold Jaffe (review date March-April 1988)
   6. Matthew Wilson (essay date March 1990)
   7. John Edgar Wideman with Charles H. Rowell (interview date Winter 1990)
   8. Jacqueline Berben (essay date April-June 1991)
   9. Ashraf H. A. Rushdy (essay date Fall 1991)
   10. Jan Clausen (essay date Spring 1992)
   11. Michael Gorra (review date June 14 1992)
   12. Sven Birkerts (review date 13 and 20 July 1992)
   13. John Edgar Wideman with Jessica L. Lustig (interview date Fall 1992)
   14. James Robert Saunders (essay date December 1992)
   15. Mel Watkins (review date 13 November 1994)
   16. Mark Shechner (review date March/April 1995)
   17. Sanford Pinsker (review date Spring 1995)
   18. Paul West (review date 29 September 1996)
   19. Gene Seymour (review date 28 October 1996)
   20. Sven Birkerts (review date 3 November 1996)
   21. Joyce Carol Oates (review date 27 March 1997)
   22. Michael Wood (review date 27 November 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. Joyce Carol Oates