| Summary: | Writer Ishmael Reed was born on February 22, 1938, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Thelma Virginia Coleman and Henry Lenoir. He grew up in Buffalo, New York, where he was encouraged to write while attending Millard Fillmore College and later SUNY Buffalo. In 1962, Reed moved to New York City, where he joined the Umbra poets. In 1967, he began teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. That same year, he published his first novel, The Free Lance Pallbearers. He gained recognition in the 1970s with the publishing of several other books, including his novels Mumbo Jumbo and Flight to Canada, and he co-founded the literary journal Yardbird with poet Al Young in 1971. In 1976, he co-founded the Before Columbus Foundation, which promotes contemporary American multicultural literature. Reed taught at a number of institutions and was a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant. He authored over thirty books.
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