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Books by Yusef Komunyakaa
I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head
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Dien Cai Dau
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Magic City /
Neon Vernacular
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Toys
in a Field
Thieves of Paradise /
Talking Dirty to
the Gods / Pleasure
Dome /
Jazz Poetry Anthology /
The Second Set /
Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy
Blue Notes: Essays, Interviews, and Commentaries
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Yusef Komunyakaa--born 1947 and raised in Bogalusa, Louisiana--served in Vietnam as an information specialist, saw
combat, and received the Bronze Star. A graduate of the
University of Colorado, he also received master's degrees from
the University of California, Irvine, and Colorado State
University. After teaching at the University of New Orleans,
Komunyakaa was a professor at Indiana University for over ten
years, and, in the fall of 1997, he began teaching at Princeton
University.
Yusef Komunyakaa is professor in the Council of Humanities
and Creative Writing at Princeton University. Wesleyan has
published six of his ten books, including the Pulitzer
prize-winning
Neo Vernacular (1993), which also won the
Kingsley-Tufts Poetry Award from the Claremont Graduate School,
Magic City (1992), and
Dien Cai Dau (1988).
In 1991, he won the Thomas Forcade award, in 1993 was
nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry,
in 1994 received the William Faulkner Prize from the University
of Rennes in France, and in 1997 he was awarded the Levinson
Prize from Poetry magazine and the Hanes Poetry Prize.
His new book from Wesleyan is
Thieves of Paradise.
Pulitzer prize-winning poet (1994) Yusef Komunyakaa is a
unique figure in American poetry and the author of eleven poetry
volumes. Komunyakaa's poetry is celebrated for its short lines,
its simple vernacular, its jazzy feel, and its rootedness in the
poet's experience as a black of the American South, and as a
decorated veteran of the Vietnam War.
Komunyakaa's most recent collection is
Talking Dirty to
the Gods (2000), and his earlier collections include Thieves
of Paradise (1998), University Press of New England),
which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Neon
Vernacular (1993), which received the Pulitzer Prize, Magic
City (1992) and Dien Cai Dau (1988).
In 1999, Yusef Komunyakaa was elected a Chancellor of the
Academy of American Poets, In addition to his many publications
and poetry collections, he is co-editor (with Sascha Feinstein)
of two volumes of "The Jazz Poetry Anthology" from
Indiana University Press. Komunyakaa was a visiting writer at
the Writers Institute on March 8, 2001.
Yusef Komunyakaa's poems have aptly been described as
"razor-sharp pieces that tell us more about our culture
than any news broadcast," Toi Derrcote, focusing on the
poet's aesthetic, has written that "Komunyakaa's poetry is
about art, about how it alters reality, how it changes the past,
and how it is both a desperate and a redemptive act" and
Komunyakaa has claimed that "language is what can liberate
or imprison the human psyche" and that "we are
responsible for our lives and the words we use."
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"In the pantheon of poetic stereotypes--the
vitriolic, passionate drunkard is one; the wry, acerbic loner
another--Mr. Komunyakaa . . . is more the dreamy intellectual, a
Worthsworthian type whose worldly, philosophic mind might be
stirred by something as homely and personal as a walk in a field
of daffodils."—Bruce Weber in The New
York Times
' . . . a remarkable set of 132 four-quatrain
poems that erase distinctions between nature, humanity and the
divine . . . Life in its spectacular variations inspires quirky
ruminations on such earthly creatures as slime molds and hyenas,
and such mythological beings as the centaur and Janus, the
two-faced god." Kirkus Reviews said that "Here
Komunyakaa comes across as a poet of both the small and the grand,
a visionary who considers Eros and maggots with equal
insight."—Booklist on Talking Dirty to
the Gods
"Yusef Komunyakaa is a poet of the human
heart in all its joys and horrors, fiercely present as it pounds
away at the center of every human being's consciousness. He
enlarges our idea of what poetry is, challenging us to go beyond
our own narrow definitions."—The
Washington Post Book World on Thieves of Paradise
Source: of Reviews:
www.albany.edu/writers-inst/komunyakaayusef.html and Kenyon Review, Summer/Fall 1998, Vol.
20 Issue 3/4, p. 5, 16p.
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Conversations with Yusef Komunyakaa
Edited by
Shirley A. James Hanshaw
Conversations with Yusef Komunyakaa brings
together over two decades of interviews and profiles
with one of America's most prolific and acclaimed
contemporary poets. Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947)
describes his work alternately as "word paintings"
and as "music," and his affinity with the visual and
aural arts is amply displayed in these
conversations. The volume also addresses the
diversity and magnitude of Komunyakaa's literary
output. His collaborations with artists in a variety
of genres, including music, dance, drama, opera, and
painting have produced groundbreaking performance
pieces. Throughout the collection, Komunyakaa's
interest in finding and creating poetry across the
artistic spectrum is made manifest. |
For his collection
Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, 1977-1989,
Komunyakaa became the first African American male to win the
Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Through his work he provides keen
insight into life's mysteries from seemingly inconsequential and
insignificant life forms ("Ode to the Maggot") to some of the
most compelling historical and life-altering events of our time,
such as the Vietnam War ("Facing It"). Influenced strongly by
jazz, blues, and folklore, as well as the classical poetic
tradition, his poetry comprises a riveting chronicle of the
African American experience.
updated 9 October 2007
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Incognegro: A Memoir of
Exile and Apartheid
By Frank
B. Wilderson III
Wilderson, a professor,
writer and filmmaker from
the Midwest,
presents a gripping account
of his role in the downfall
of South African apartheid
as one of only two black
Americans in the African
National Congress (ANC).
After marrying a South
African law student,
Wilderson reluctantly
returns with her to South
Africa in the early 1990s,
where he teaches
Johannesburg and Soweto
students, and soon joins the
military wing of the ANC.
Wilderson's stinging
portrait of Nelson Mandela
as a petulant elder eager to
accommodate his white
countrymen will jolt readers
who've accepted the
reverential treatment
usually accorded him. After
the assassination of
Mandela's rival, South
African Communist Party
leader Chris Hani, Mandela's
regime deems Wilderson's
public questions a threat to
national security; soon,
having lost his stomach for
the cause, he returns to
America. Wilderson has a
distinct, powerful voice and
a strong story that shuffles
between the indignities of
Johannesburg life and his
early years in Minneapolis,
the precocious child of
academics who barely
tolerate his emerging
political consciousness.
Wilderson's observations
about love within and across
the color line and cultural
divides are as provocative
as his politics; despite
some distracting
digressions, this is a
riveting memoir of
apartheid's last days.—Publishers
Weekly
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
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updated 3 April
2010
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