 Wise's translation of the "Tarikh al fattash"has been praised for its readable prose, and it remains one of Africa World Press's best-selling books.Wise's works in literary criticism have focused on African, Middle Eastern, and Native American authors, including Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Frantz Fanon, V. S. Naipaul, Mary Crow Dog, and others.In his early theoretical writings, Wise identified himself as “Marxian” and wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on Fredric Jameson.