Q

'Her consciousness outpaced most people around her': Poet Eugene Redmond on the legacy of Toni Morrison

American poet Eugene Redmond remembers his friend, collaborator and former editor, the late Toni Morrison.
Nobel laureate and novelist Toni Morrison died Monday at the age of 88. (Mongrel Media)

Yesterday, Toni Morrison died at the age of 88. She was a hugely influential editor, transformative author and Nobel laureate, best known for her novels Beloved, The Bluest Eye and Song of Solomon.

Eugene Redmond is an American poet and academic. He and Morrison have been friends since the late 1960s and at one point she was even his editor. He joined q guest host Talia Schlanger from East St. Louis, Ill. to remember Morrison's legacy.

"Morrison had opinions and Morrison could be severe sometimes in her opinions," said Redmond. "She made swift undoing of charlatans. She was hard and she said that herself. ... She didn't take any shit."

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