Maxine Hong Kingston with Shelley Fisher Fishkin (Interview Date 1990)

SOURCE: Kingston, Maxine Hong with Shelley Fisher Fishkin. "Interview with Maxine Hong Kingston." In Conversations with Maxine Hong Kingston, edited by Paul Skenazy and Tera Martin, pp. 159-67. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998.

In the following interview, taped in 1990 and originally published in American Literary History in 1991, Kingston discusses gender stereotypes, the role of feminist writers, and the major influences on her writing.

[Fishkin]: In a recent article you wrote in the magazine Mother Jones called "The Novel's Next Step," you explore what the novel of the future might look like—perhaps a sequel to Tripmaster Monkey. Among other things, you note that your hero's wife, Taña, will have to "use the freedom the feminists have won. These struggles have got to result in happy endings for all, and the readers must learn not to worship...