Ishmael Reed
Ishmael Reed is a prominent American poet, novelist, and scholar, best known for the satirical and ebullient novel Mumbo Jumbo (1972). Of the language he employs in his works, the Poetry Foundation explains, “Reed [uses] ‘Neohoodooism’ in his work. Based on Hoodoo, a syncretic religion that absorbs West African religious practices, Reed turned this concept of syncretism into a literary method that combines aspects of ‘standard’ English, including dialect, slang, argot, neologisms, or rhyme,...
