Leon Forrest is an innovative stylist. His concern with the literary possibilities of the oral tradition places him in the company of several of his contemporaries including Toni Morrison, Albert Murray, Gayl Jones, and James Alan McPherson.

Leon Forrest was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 8 January 1937. An only child, he grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where his youth was filled with experiences that influenced his literary development. For instance, he remembers reading the Scriptures to his great-grandmother, and he says this gave him a "vivid sense of the drama in the Bible." Further he was exposed to the Roman Catholic religion on his mother's side and to the Protestant faith on his father's. Both religions figure prominently in his novels. The oral tradition, which is also an important part of the stylistic and thematic elements in the works, may also be traced to specific childhood...