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 as long as I could remember—and I simply wanted to...