Komunyakaa, Yusef 1947- (James Willie Brown, James Willie Brown, Jr.)

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Komunyakaa, Yusef 1947- (James Willie Brown, James Willie Brown, Jr.)

PERSONAL:

Surname is pronounced "koh-mun-yah-kuh"; born April 29, 1947, in Bogalusa, LA; son of a carpenter; married Mandy Sayer (a novelist and short story writer), 1985; children: one. Education: University of Colorado, B.A., 1975; Colorado State University, M.A., 1979; University of California, Irvine, M.F.A., 1980.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, 442 Ballantine Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405.

CAREER:

Writer, poet, essayist, and educator. New Orleans Public Schools, elementary teacher; University of New Orleans—Lakefront, instructor in English and poetry; Colorado State University, associate instructor of English composition, 1976-78; University of California, Irvine, teaching assistant in poetry, writing instructor for remedial English composition, 1980; University of New Orleans, instructor in English composition and American literature, 1982-84; poet-in-the-schools, New Orleans, 1984-85; Indiana University at Bloomington, visiting assistant professor of English, 1985-86, associate professor of English and African American Studies, 1986-93, Ruth Lilly Professor, 1989-90, professor of English and African American Studies, 1993-98; Princeton University, professor of creative writing and counsel in the humanities, 1997—. University of California, Berkeley, visiting professor of English, fall, 1991, Holloway lecturer, spring, 1992. Military service: U.S. Army, 1965-67, served in Vietnam as an information specialist and as editor of the Southern Cross, a military newspaper; received the Bronze Star.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Rocky Mountain Writers Forum, First Place Poetry award, 1974, 1977; Fine Arts Work Center Writing fellowship, Provincetown, 1980-81; National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowship, 1981-82, 1987-88; Louisiana Arts fellowship, 1985; San Francisco Poetry Center award, 1986, for I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head; American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults selection, 1988, and The Dark Room Poetry prize, 1989, both for Dien Cai Dau; University of Massachusetts, Boston, Thomas Forcade award, 1990; Kenyon Review award for literary excellence, 1991; Village Voice Twenty-Five Best Books selection, 1992, for Magic City; Pulitzer Prize for poetry, and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Claremont Graduate School, both 1994, both for Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems; National Book Critics' Circle Award nomination for poetry, 2001, for Talking Dirty to the Gods; elected chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Dedications and Other Darkhorses, RMCAJ, 1977.

Lost in the Bonewheel Factory, Lynx House Press (Amherst, MA), 1979.

Copacetic, Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 1984.

I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head, Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 1986.

Toys in a Field, Black River Press, 1986.

Dien Cai Dau, Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 1988.

February in Sydney (chapbook), Matchbooks, 1989.

Magic City, Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England (Middletown, CT), 1992.

Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England (Middletown, CT), 1993.

Thieves of Paradise, Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England (Middletown, CT), 1998.

Talking Dirty to the Gods, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 2000.

Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems, Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 2001.

Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part One, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (New York, NY), 2004.

(Author of poetry) Gilgamesh: A Verse Play, concept and dramaturgy by Chad Gracia, Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 2006.

OTHER

(Editor, with Sascha Feinstein) The Jazz Poetry Anthology, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1991.

(Translator, with Martha Collins) The Insomnia of Fire by Nguyen Quang Thieu, University of Massachusetts Press (Amherst, MA), 1995.

(Editor, with Sascha Feinstein) The Second Set: The Jazz Poetry Anthology, Volume 2, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1996.

Blue Notes: Essays, Interviews, and Commentaries, edited by Radiclani Clytus, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 2000.

(Editor, with David Lehman) Best American Poetry 2003, Scribner (New York, NY), 2003.

(Author of essay) Covenant: Scenes from an African American Church, photographs by Tyagan Miller, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 2007.

Contributor to anthologies, including The Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets and Carrying the Darkness, edited by W.D. Ehrhart. Contributor of poetry and reviews to periodicals, including Black American Literature Forum, Beloit Poetry Journal, Chameleon, Colorado Quarterly, Free Lance, Poetry Now, and African American Review. UCCA and Riverrun, University of Colorado, editor, 1973-75; Gumbo: A Magazine for the Arts, co-editor and publisher, 1976-79; Indiana Review, administrative consultant; Callaloo, Johns Hopkins University, advisor.

SIDELIGHTS:

In his poetry, Yusef Komunyakaa weaves together the elements of his own life in short lines of vernacular to create complex images of life in his native Louisiana and the jungles of Vietnam. In 1994, Komunyakaa claimed the Pulitzer Prize and the 50,000 dollar Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems. "In the pantheon of poet stereotypes—the vitriolic, passionate drunkard is one; the wry, acerbic loner another—Mr. Komunyakaa … is more the dreamy intellectual," Bruce Weber noted in the New York Times, "a Wordsworthian type whose worldly, philosophic mind might be stirred by something as homely and personal as a walk in a field of daffodils." Weber continued: "His poems, many of which are built on fiercely autobiographical details—about his stint in Vietnam, about his childhood—deal with the stains that experience leaves on a life, and they are often achingly suggestive without resolution."

In Neon Vernacular, Komunyakaa pulls together images of the South and its culture, of blacks living in a white world, of war in Southeast Asia, of cities pulsing to the blues and jazz. The language is simple, laid out in short lines. Diann Blakely Shoaf observed in the Bloomsbury Review: "The short-lined poem, a staple of the Deep Image movement, has seemed stale and tiresome in recent years, as too often it has been shaped by poets who equate the line with a unit of syntax." Yet, the reviewer continued, "Komunyakaa mostly avoids this pitfall, in part because of his sensitive and well-tuned ear, in part because he knows that a short line as well as a long one should possess both content and integrity." Combining his deeply personal images and his seemingly effortless presentation, Komunyakaa crafts a "neon vernacular." As Robyn Selman put it in a Voice Literary Supplement review: "Most of Yusef Komunyakaa's poems rise to a crescendo, like that moment in songs one or two beats before the bridge, when everything is hooked-up, full-blown."

In Copacetic, Komunyakaa returns "to his boyhood and early manhood," observed Kirkland C. Jones in a Dictionary of Literary Biography profile. "These poems examine folk ideas, beliefs, sayings, and songs, and the terminology of blues and jazz." I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head takes the poet and his reader "from lost love in the city to loved ones and friends lost to the evils of slavery and Jim Crowism in the Deep South," added Jones. In these poems, "Komunyakaa continues his fascination with ghosts reflected in life's looking glasses, with images of skeletons, and with other symbols of mortality and life's fragility." "Komunyakaa shows us racism revealing itself in the most ordinary ways," Booklist reviewer Pat Monaghan wrote of Magic City, "the connections between people and their land, sex finding beautiful expression in hard times."

In the late 1960s, Komunyakaa served as a correspondent for Army publications in Vietnam. Although he uses images from this experience in many of his works, the poet deals directly with the war in his collection Dien Cai Dau. The title means "crazy" in Vietnamese and was used by locals to refer to American soldiers fighting in their country. In the opinion of Kirkland C. Jones, "Komunyakaa's Vietnam poems rank with the best on that subject. He focuses on the mental horrors of war—the anguish shared by the soldiers, those left at home to keep watch, and other observers, participants, objectors, who are all part of the ‘psychological terrain.’" The poems in this volume also explore issues of race and sex: "Komunyakaa writes sensitively about the difficulties of being a black American soldier fighting alongside white men," observed Wayne Koestenbaum in the New York Times Book Review, "and of American servicemen's sexual relations with Vietnamese women."

In these poems of Vietnam, Komunyakaa uses his characteristic style to tangle together the natural and the man-made, the Southeast Asian landscape and the war. In the words of Bloomsbury Review contributor Samuel Maio: "Komunyakaa, through his simple and vernacular diction, his evocative images and chronicled experiences, successfully provides us with glimpses into the mind of a dien cai dau, often quite aptly named, the insanity of Vietnam measuring against (and similarly affecting) its principles, as these terrifying poems—drawn by the precise hand of an unerring craftsman—make so strikingly clear." Koestenbaum remarked that the poet's casual juxtaposition of nature and war belie the artistry at work. "Though his tersely-phrased chronicles, like documentary photographs, give us the illusion that we are facing unmediated reality, they rely on a predictable though powerful set of literary conventions." He added: "The book works through accretion, not argument; the poems are all in the present tense, which furthers the illusion that we are receiving tokens of a reality untroubled by language."

Komunyakaa served as editor, with David Lehman, of the Best American Poetry 2003. Booklist contributor Donna Seaman found a "palpable urgency and sharp awareness of the precariousness of life" among the numerous "potent and diverse poems" Komunyakaa "astutely gathered" for this annual collection. The editors include works from prominent practitioners and Pulitzer Prize winners, including Richard Howard, Galway Kinnell, Rita Dove, W.S. Merwin, Stephen Dunn, Paul Muldoon, Carl Dennis, and numerous others. Authors' notes offer insight into the creation of the poems, including musings on the art or music that helped inspire each piece. Komunyakaa offers an introduction in which he places the content-rich poems he has chosen in contrast with the exploratory nature of the avant-garde. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that this volume of the ongoing series "has pleasures of its own."

In Thieves of Paradise, Komunyakaa's "poetry bristles with vitality, vibrancy, and an admirable concern for human suffering," commented reviewer John Taylor in Poetry. The works contained within the collection consist of both poems and prose pieces, contemplating vivid images ranging from the life of a jazz musician to memories of Vietnam to the dusty plains of Africa. The poet relates the life history of jazz musician Charlie Parker in a series of fourteen lushly constructed poems. A number of prose narratives concerning the Vietnam War are "concise, vivid, unforgettable," Taylor stated.

Some of them consider the war from the distance of many year, when "the phantom voices of the rice paddie" still echo among the many troubled veterans. Others see how the history of the war has been scavenged and transformed, such as when a Hanoi market visitor looks at an old instrument of destruction now transformed into a child's toy. "As the title indicates, a paradise has been pilfered," Taylor mused. The characters evoked in his poems range from a wounded, traumatized veteran to an impoverished wet nurse who give so much of herself that she is unable to feed her own child to real-life historical figure Ishi, the last full-blooded Yahi Indian who achieved a measure of fame after being captured in California in 1911. "The full weight of history is felt in these poems," commented Booklist reviewer Donna Seaman. "These complex and richly detailed poems cover a tremendous emotional range," observed Joel Brouwer in the Progressive. "No one is writing like Komunyakaa today," remarked Steven R. Ellis in the Library Journal. "One only hopes more readers will find him."

In the collection Talking Dirty to the Gods, "Komunyakaa offers readers a complex series of ruminations on the expansive ecology of human life," commented Duriel E. Harris in Black Issues Book Review. Each of the 132 poems in the volume is constructed in a disciplined four-quatrain form. The works address the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it as well as various manifestations of supernatural beings such as devils and demigods, the bestial and the divine. Throughout, the relationship of humanity to the natural and the divine is considered and explicated. "Life in all its spectacular variations inspires quirky ruminations" on various subjects, such as slime mold, the ancient image of two-faced Janus, the centaur, and more, Seaman noted in Booklist. Komunyakaa distills the essence of life and its inevitable, unavoidable pathway to the afterlife into his consideration of the maggot: "No decree or creed can outlaw you / As you take every living thing apart. Little / Master of earth, no one gets to heaven / Without going through you first."

Komunyakaa's "bodily frankness, his appealingly clipped rhythms and his darting intelligence all remain on display" in this collection, remarked a Publishers Weekly reviewer. "Komunyakaa writes verse which pulsates with the rich folklore and mystery that attended his childhood in the South, and the collection is suffused in ancient mythology, especially incorporating gods from the Greek pantheon," commented Andrea Shaw in World Literature Today. Komunyakaa is "clearly one of our premier poets, and his work has a pungency and resourcefulness that are unmistakably his," observed David Wojahn in Poetry.

Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems opens with a collection of new poems concerned with music, race, and eroticism, then segues into a selection of earlier, uncollected poems. The volume then expands into a selection of works from ten of Komunyakaa's earlier books of poetry. These pieces return to and elaborate upon some of the poet's favored themes, including the natural world, the inexplicable nature of war, the conflicts inherent in race and culture, and the pleasures of art. Seaman, writing in Booklist, called the book a "brilliant and daring variation on a single form." The poems "pull you from your expectations, tell you something you did not know, and leave you better off than you were," stated Library Journal critic Louis McKee. Komunyakaa's work consistently adds to his growing reputation as "one of the major American poets" of modern times, Seaman remarked.

Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part One, "pays homage" to the many individuals "caught in the cruel paradoxes of racism and the grinding wheels of history," noted Seaman in another Booklist review. Komunyakaa offers works on numerous historical figures, including Sally Hemings, the black mistress of founding father Thomas Jefferson; Jeanne Duval, the lover of Baudelaire; an elevator operator who served as a model for John Singer Sargent; female pharaoh Hatshepsut; jazz great Louis Armstrong; pioneering author Ralph Ellison; and more. Komunyakaa's "whole sequence testifies to a skill, and an ambition, that will surely continue to merit national attention," commented a Publishers Weekly contributor.

Gilgamesh: A Verse Play, written with Chad Gracia, is an adaptation of the ancient Sumerian tale which, many believe, is the oldest story in the world. King Gilgamesh develops a deep kinship with wildman Enkidu, and the two battle the forest monster Humbaba. The creature's defeat unleashes a deadly curse that kills Enkidu, and Gilgamesh undertakes a perilous journey to locate a magic flower that might have the power to revive his comrade. Komunyakaa and Gracia "have brought vigorous life to this ancient tale," observed Doris Lynch in the Library Journal. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented: "This is a dramatic work of sinewy vitality, with a real hero who moves and breathes on the stage."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 94, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1997.

Contemporary Literary Criticism Yearbook 1994, Volume 86, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

Contemporary Poets, 6th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 120: American Poets since World War II, Third Series, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1992.

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, March, 2001, Duriel E. Harris, review of Talking Dirty to the Gods, p. 36; March-April, 2005, Patricia Spears Jones, review of Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part One, p. 33.

Bloomsbury Review, May/June, 1990, review of Dien Cai Dau, p. 27; November, 1993, review of Magic City, p. 11.

Booklist, October 1, 1992, Pag Monaghan, review of Magic City, p. 231; February 15, 1998, Donna Seaman, review of Thieves of Paradise, p. 970; August, 2000, Donna Seaman, review of Talking Dirty to the Gods, p. 2101; February 15, 2001, Donna Seaman, reviews of Pleasure Dome, p. 1098, and Talking Dirty to the Gods, p. 1102; March 15, 2001, Ray Olson, review of Talking Dirty to the Gods, p. 1349; September 15, 2003, Donna Seaman, review of Best American Poetry 2003, p. 195; September 15, 2004, Donna Seaman, review of Taboo, p. 19.6.

Library Journal, June 1, 1998, Steven R. Ellis, review of Thieves of Paradise, p. 113; April 1, 1999, Barbara Hoffert, review of Thieves of Paradise, p. 96; August, 2000, Fred Muratori, review of Talking Dirty to the Gods, p. 110; April 15, 2001, Louis McKee, review of Pleasure Dome, p. 98; October 15, 2004, Fred Muratori, review of Taboo, p. 66; September 1, 2006, Doris Lynch, review of Gilgamesh: A Verse Play, p. 151.

New York Times, April 16, 1994, Anna Quindlen, "Poetry Emotion," profile of Yusef Komunyakaa, p. A21; May 2, 1994, Bruce Weber, "A Poet's Values: Focus on the Words instead of the Writer," profile of Yusef Komunyakaa, p. C11.

New York Times Book Review, October 4, 1987, Matthew Flamm, review of I Apologies for the Eyes in My Head, p. 24; September 24, 1989, Wayne Kostenbaum, review of Dien Cai Dau, p. 50; December 10, 2000, April Bernard, "I Sing of Slime Mold," review of Talking Dirty to the Gods.

Poetry, June, 1993, Calvin Bedient, review of Magic City, p. 167; December, 1998, John Taylor, review of Thieves of Paradise, p. 180; December, 2001, David Wojahn, review of Pleasure Dome, p. 168; February, 2005, Brian Phillips, review of Taboo, p. 394.

Progressive, June, 1998, Joel Brouwer, review of Thieves of Paradise, p. 42.

Publishers Weekly, February 23, 1998, review of Thieves of Paradise, p. 70; July 24, 2000, review of Talking Dirty to the Gods, p. 82; January 22, 2001, review of Pleasure Dome, p. 321; September 1, 2003, review of Best American Poetry 2003, p. 83; September 20, 2004, review of Taboo, p. 60; September 18, 2006, review of Gilgamesh, p. 38.

Southern Review, summer, 1999, Kate Daniels, "Old Masters," review of Thieves of Paradise, p. 621.

Time, March 30, 1998, Walter Kim, review of Thieves of Paradise, p. 68.

Village Voice, January 12, 1993, review of Magic City, p. 80.

Voice Literary Supplement, December, 1992, review of Magic City, p. 14; June, 1993, review of Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, p. 6.

World Literature Today, summer-autumn, 2001, Andrea Shaw, review of Talking Dirty to the Gods, p. 153; winter, 2002, Ashley Brown, review of Pleasure Dome, p. 153.