John Edgar Wideman.

• Author: Law, Violet
• Position: THE PROGRESSIVE INTERVIEW - Interview

As American novelists go, few have had the foresight of John Edgar Wideman. In March 2003, hours before President Bush broadcast his plans to attack Iraq, Wideman declared in a university speech that the war would "end the discussion of our collective responsibility" for anti-American sentiments and instead create a "morality play of heroes and villains." This stance earned him a place on the internal enemy list drawn up by the neoconservative group Americans for Victory over Terrorism.

Long before the Iraq War, Wideman distinguished himself as a bold and blunt social critic. Besides writing a string of novels and nonfiction works, he frequently pens commentaries for Harper 's. He is as insightful as he is introspective, drawing material from his black underclass upbringing and family upheavals.

Wideman rose from blue collar Pittsburgh to become a Rhodes scholar, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and excelling at college basketball. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and a MacArthur Fellowship. His novels are populated with lively characters and imbued with political ideas. For instance, in Philadelphia Fire , his 1990 fictionalized account of police firebombing the radical group MOVE, Wideman exposed the establishment's suppression of black power and political aspirations.

Wideman's life as an African American intellectual, however, has done little to insulate him from violence and family tragedy. Both a son and a brother are each serving a life sentence for murder. In his 1984 autographical book, Brothers and Keepers , Wideman examined his and his brother's disparate paths while raising larger questions about racism and society.

His adept use of the storytelling form to explore political ideas is again evident in Fanon , Wideman's first novel in a decade, which came out in February. In this new novel, Wideman interweaves fiction, personal history, and current affairs to reimagine the life of Martinique-born philosopher, anti-colonialist, and political activist Frantz Fanon.

Wideman, who was born in Washington, D.C., now lives in New York City with his wife.

On a balmy winter afternoon, Wideman and I met over a coffee in his neighborhood café in the East Village. Wideman was by turns solemn and animated as he pondered a range of issues.

Q: Most people blame Bush for the Iraq War. But you say that we all share a "collective responsibility" for the situation we find ourselves in today. What do you mean by that?

John Edgar...