Ishmael Reed

Satire may be what closes on Saturday night, but it is nevertheless a powerful form of dramatic expression. In this first published collection of his plays, Reed takes on a half-dozen contemporary issues and causes, among them radical feminism (in "Mother Hubbard") and religious hypocrisy (in "The Preacher ... (more)and the Rapper"), in his distinctive style. Over the last few decades, this award-winning writer has explored a variety of racial and political issues in more than a score of novels (e.g., "Mumbo Jumbo"), books of poetry (e.g., "Chattanooga"), and essays (e.g., "Airing Dirty Laundry").