in 2014, razia iqbal interviewed her at the hay festival in a special edition of talking books. iqbal, and i'm at hay festival for a special talking books programme with toni morrison. she is the last american writer to have won the nobel prize for literature. that was in 1993. she remains, though, a towering figure in literature. from herfirst book, the bluest eye, about an african—american girl who wants blue eyes, to her crowning achievement, beloved, about the impact of 200 years of slavery. she has always written out of the experience of being an african—american woman, yet her writing has become emblematic of an essential aspect of american reality. i would like to start by talking about definitions — how you have been defined, and how you define yourself. i know it probably matters less now, but when you first started out writing, you quite consciously wanted to define yourself as an african—american woman writer. why was that? those days, the early days, when i began to write, i got compliments from other writers about the value and the beauty, perhaps, of the book, and

here she is talking to razia iqbal in 2014 about her early career, her first novel and her pride at winningthink of her as, african—american writer, i think of heras, and he african—american writer, i think of her as, and he paused and i said, african—american writer, i think of heras, and he paused and i said, a white male writer? so the categories that we were being put in. so i claimed it, yes, iam a black woman writer whatever that means. i wanted to read that book and i could not find it and thought maybe if i looked hard enough somebody had written a story about those things and about putting a young black child centre stage. without making fun of her, she is not any of these cliched things and i thought someone probably was writing that book or would write it but no one did and i was eager to read it. i did not think i could read it unless i wrote it. the new york times i think one said she writes this way i think just to avoid the cliche. yes! i felt proud in a number of ways. i was a proud female, from ohio. not a lot of females had won that prize and the other thing was they gave