Clarence Major

Clarence Major (bɛ dɔɣi o la Anashaara goli December 31, 1936) ka o nyɛ African-American nira ŋun niŋdi yɛltɔɣatamalisi, peenta-peenta, ka daa di 2015 "Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts", ban daa ti o li n-nyɛ Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. O daa lahi di 2016 PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wuhibu
Major wuhila litiricha/creative writing shikuru yuli booni Brooklyn College, New York University, Queens College, Sarah Lawrence College, University of Washington, Howard University, University of Maryland, University of Colorado, Temple University, Binghamton University, University of California din be Davis ni Fulbright-Hays Exchange award ka lahi wuhi American culture shikuru yuli booni University of Nice, ka be France, 1981–1983. O yila University of Colorado yuuni 1989 ka wuhi University of California, Davis, yuun pishi ayi ka pɔi ka naan yi che tuma yuunu 2007.

Recognition

Yuuni 2021, Major nyɛla bɛ ni daa wuhi so Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.
 Grant, Struga Yugoslavia International Poetry Festival-U.S. State Department Educational & Cultural Exchange Program, 1975.
 Grant, Fulbright-Hays Inter-University Exchange Award: Franco-American Commission for Educational Exchange—Nice, France, 1981–1983
 Grant, United Kingdom Educational Commission, London, England, 1981.
 Grant, International Communication Agency, American Embassy, London, England, 1982.
 Grant, Commission for Education and Cultural Exchange Between Italy and the U.S. of America, Rome, Italy, 1982.
 Grant, Africa Regional Services, United States International Communication Agency, Paris, France, 1982.
 Grant, IREX (Poland cultural trip), 1984.
 Grant, U.S. Information Service, American Embassy, Paris, France, 1985.

Anthologies
Major has sabi "anthologies" pam, saha ŋɔ dina n-nyɛ Calling the Wind: 20th Century African-American Short Stories (1993) ni The Garden Thrives: 20th Century African-American Poetry (1996).

O maŋmaŋa tumanima shɛŋa n-nyɛ: Best American Poetry 2019, The Norton Anthology of American Literature, The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, Postmodern Poetry in America 1950 to the Present, Men of Our Time: Male Poetry in Contemporary America, Dynamics of Violence, Up Late: American Poetry Since 1970, The World's Best Poetry: Supplement IV, Words On The Page, The World In Your Hands, Mirrors: An Introduction to Literature, The Urban Adventures, American Negro Poetry, Where Is Vietnam: American Poets Respond, In A Time of Revolution: Poems From Our Third World, Poems of War Resistance, A Punishment For Peace, Natural Process: An Anthology of New Black Poetry, Black Out Loud: An Anthology of Modern Poems by Black Americans, Inside Outer Space: New Poems From The Space Age, Soulscript: Afro-American Poetry, The Movement Toward a New America, Dices or Black Bones: Black Voices of The Seventies, Black American Literature 1780–Present, Fine Frenzy: Enduring Themes in Poetry, The Modern Age: Literature, The Real Imagination, You Better Believe It: Black Voices in English, Black Spirits: A Festival of New Black Poets in America, New Black Voices, Starting With Poetry, From The Belly of The Shark, The Poetry of Black America: Anthology of the 20th Century, Open Poetry: Four Anthologies of Expanded Poems, The Liberal Art of Interpretation, A New Rhetoric, The Pushcart Prize: The Best of The Small Presses, Contemporary Writing from The Continents, The Point: Where Teaching and Writing Intersect, The Jazz Poetry Anthology; Giavani Poeti Americani (Italy), Heartshape in the Dust: An Anthology of Black American Poetry (Yugoslavia), American Poets Say Goodbye to the 20th Century, Gondola a Signore Signore Gondola: Venice in 20th Century American Poetry (Italy), Govereci Boben (Poland?), The Writing on The Wall, Merry Christmas Baby, Truth to Power, and others.
Fiction: Children of The Night, American Made, Calling the Wind, The Avant Garde Today: An International Anthology, Statements, Statements 2, The Sound of Writing, Pushcart XV, Breaking Ice, 19 Necromancers From Now, Ten Times Black: Stories From The Black Experience, Not Normal Illinois, American Made, Love Stories and Writing Under Fire: Stories Of The Vietnam War and others.

Periodicals
Major's tumanima shɛŋa n-nyɛ: The American Scholar, The New Yorker, Harvard Review, The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Los Angeles Times Book Review, The American Poetry Review, The Baffler, Catamaran, Peacock Journal, The Black Scholar, The Baltimore Sun Magazine Supplement, Upstate [Rochester] Sunday Magazine, The Denver Post, Hampton Road Guide and Journal, The Rocky Mountain News, The San Jose Mercury News, Essence, The Massachusetts Review, Chelsea, Ploughshares, Witness, Boulevard, Michigan Quarterly Review, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Trace, Negro Digest, The Nickel Review, [Chicago] Sun-Times Showcase, John O'Hare Journal, Kenyon Review, New Myths/MSS, American Review, The Magazine of New Writing, Contact, Folger Poetry Broadside, The Literary Review, Mundus Artium: A Journal of International Literature and the Arts, National Guardian, New York Poetry, The Outsider, Poetry Miscellany, Unmuzzled OX, Yardbird Reader, Works, Callaloo, African American Review, New American Review, Brilliant Corners, A Gathering of The Tribes, Baa Sima (Accra), Black Orpheus (Nigeria), El carno emplumado (Mexico), East and West (India), Fiddlehead (Canada), Gedicht (Antwerp), Interspace (France), In Their Own Words (Italy), New Departures (England), Poetry (England), Pravda (Moscow), Quadrant (Australia), Tautara (Turkey), Vinduet (Norway), and Literatura na Świecie (Poland).

Visual arts
Major dolila Gus Nall m-bɔhim peentibu(1919–1995) bini din gbaai 1952 zaŋ chaŋ 1954. Fullerton Hall ni daa be Art Institute of Chicago, Major daa lahi chani ni ti bɔhinda. O karimbanima so n daa nyɛ Addis Osborne (1914–2011).

O ko tumanima shɛŋa nyɛla din be Pierre Menard Gallery, Harvard Square, Cambridge, University Art Gallery Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Sarah Lawrence College, Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan, Hamilton Club Gallery, Paterson, New Jersey, Phoenix Gallery, Sacramento CA, Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento CA, Blue Hills Gallery, Winters, CA, Main Street Gallery, Winters CA, ni luɣ'shɛŋa din lahi  pahi pahi.


Exhibition catalogs: Black: A Celebration of African American Art in Sacramento-Area Collections, 2008; Configurations, paintings by Clarence Major, Pierre Menard Gallery, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, 2010; Myself Painting, paintings by Clarence Major, University Gallery, The Center for Performing Arts, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana, 2011; The Writers' Brush: An Exhibition of Art Work by Writers by Donald Friedman and John Wronoski, Introduction by Joseph McElroy, New York: 

Exhibitions
 Sarah Lawrence College Library, Spring 1974
 First National Bank Gallery, Boulder, January 3–17, 1986
 Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan, September 4 – October 28, 2001
 Schacknow Museum of Fine Art, Plantation, Florida, April–May 2003
 Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento, CA, April 2003, August 2004, July 2006
 Hamilton Club Gallery Paterson New Jersey, November 4 – February 28, 2007
 John Natsoulas Gallery, May 9 – 31, 1992, June 2002, July 1993
 Porter-Troupe Gallery, San Diego, CA, April 2001
 Blue Hills Gallery, Winters, CA, April–June 2005
 The Phoenix Gallery, Sacramento, March 2006, July 2006
 California Historical Society Museum, San Francisco, December 11, 2004 – April 16, 2005
 Pierre Menard Gallery, Harvard Square, Cambridge MA, August 6 – September 3, 2010
 University Gallery Indiana State University, Terre Haute, February 2011

 Wuhibu 

 Wuhibu yaɣ'shɛŋa o ni jendi: Modern and Contemporary Literature in English; African-American Literature; Creative Writing in Poetry; Creative writing in Fiction.
 Creative Writing Instructor, The New Lincoln (Summer) School, Harlem, 1967
 Creative Writing Instructor, Girard College, Philadelphia, 1968 
 Adjunct Instructor, Brooklyn College, CCUNY, 1968–1969, 1973, 1974–1975
 Adjunct Instructor New York University (night school), 1971
 Adjunct Instructor, Queens College, CCUNY, 1972–1973
 Adjunct Instructor, Sarah Lawrence College, 1972–1975
 Assistant Professor, Howard University, Washington D. C., 1974–1976
 Visiting Creative Writer, University of Maryland, College Park, 1975
 Assistant Professor, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 1976–1977
 Associate Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 1977–1981
 Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 1981–1989  
 Professor, University of California, Davis, 1989–2003
 Distinguished Professor, University of California, 2003–2017
 University of California, San Diego, California, 1981
 University of Nice, France, 1981–1983
 State University of New York Binghamton, 1988
 Temple University, Philadelphia, 1988
 Other academic and writing appointments: Warren Wilson College; Clayton College, Denver; Albany State College, Albany, Georgia; Wisconsin State University, Eau Claire; Cazenovia College, New York; Squaw Valley Community of Writers

 Education 
Major chaŋ shikuru ka deei shɛhira gbana shikuruti din doli ŋɔ ni da:
 The Art Institute of Chicago (James Nelson Raymond scholar), 1952–54.
 Gus Nall Studio, Private Art Lessons, 1950–1954.
 The New School for Social Research (French course only), 1971.
 Norwalk Community College, Norwalk Connecticut, 1972.
 Howard University, Washington D.C., 1974–1975. 
 State University of New York, Albany, B.S. 1976.
 Union Institute and University, Yellow Springs and Cincinnati, Ohio, Ph.D. 1978.

 Bibliography 
Novels
 All-Night Visitors, Northeastern University Press (1969, 1998), 
 No, Emerson Hall (1973), 
 Reflex and Bone Structure (1975, 1996), 
 Emergency Exit (1979), 
 My Amputations (1986, 2008), 
 Such Was The Season (1987, 2003), 
 Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar (1988, 2015), 
 Dirty Bird Blues, Berkley Publishing Group (1996, 1997), ; 
 One Flesh, Kensington (2003), 
 The Lurking Place, Manic D Press (2021), 
 Thunderclouds in the Forecast, Northwestern University Press (2021), 
 Dirty Bird Blues (2023), Penguin Classics, 
 The Glint of Light (2023), At Bay Press, Hardcover 

Short stories
 Fun & Games (1990), 
 Chicago Heat and Other Stories (2016), 
 Golden Gate and Other Stories (2023), 

Poetry
 Swallow The Lake (1970), , 
 Symptoms & Madness (1971), , 
 Private Line (1971), Library of Congress card No. 76-160609
 The Cotton Club (1972), 
 The Syncopated Cakewalk (1974), 
 Inside Diameter: The France Poems (1985), 
 Surfaces and Masks (1988), 
 Some Observations of a Stranger at Zuni in The Latter Part of The Century (1989), 
 Parking Lots (1992), Perishable Press limited edition handset type
 Configurations: New and Selected Poems 1958–1998, Copper Canyon Press (1998), 
 Waiting for Sweet Betty, Copper Canyon Press (2002), 
 Myself Painting, LSU Press (2008), 
 Down and Up (2013), 
 From Now On: New and Selected Poems 1970–2015 (2015), 
 My Studio, LSU Press (2018), 
 Sporadic Troubleshooting (2022), 
 Four Days in Algeria (2025), 

Nonfiction
 Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (1970),  Library of Congress Card Number 79-130863
 Black Slang: A Dictionary of Afro-American Talk, London: Routledge (1971),  
 The Dark and Feeling: Black American Writers and Their Work, Okpaku Communications Corp (1974), 
 Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang (1994), 
 Necessary Distance: Essays and Criticism (2000), 
 Come by Here: My Mother's Life, Wiley (2002), 
 Configurations Paintings by Clarence Major (2010), limited edition exhibition catalogue
 Myself Painting Paintings by Clarence Major (2011), limited edition exhibition catalogue
 Clarence Major and His Art: Portraits of an African-American Postmodernist, ed. Bernard W. Bell (2001), 
 The Paintings and Drawings of Clarence Major (2019), 

Anthologies
 The New Black Poetry (1969), 
 Calling The Wind: 20th Century African-American Short Stories, HarperCollins (1993), 
 The Garden Thrives: 20th Century African-American Poetry, HarperCollins (1996), 
 The Essential Clarence Major: Prose and Poetry, University of North Carolina Press (2020), 

 Kundivihira 

 Biographical, critical, and professional information on Clarence Major 
 Byerman, Keith E., The Art and Life of Clarence Major, University of Georgia Press, 2012, 
 Bell, Bernard W. (ed.), Clarence Major and His Art: Portraits of an African-American Postmodernist, University of North Carolina Press, 2001, 
 Bunge, Nancy (ed.), Conversations with Clarence Major, University Press of Mississippi, 2002, 
 Dickson-Carr, Darryl, The Columbia Guide To Contemporary African American Fiction, 2005, 
 Contemporary Authors Volume 337, 2013; ; revised and extended autobiographical essay, pp. 270–312
 Contemporary Authors Volume 21–24R
 Contemporary Authors Autobiographical Series volume 6
 Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, volumes 13, 25, 53, 82
 Contemporary Literary Criticism, volumes 3, 19, 48
 Contemporary Novelists (St. James Press/ Gale), 4, 5, 6, 7
 Contemporary Poets (St. James Press/ Gale), edition 5
 Mystery and Suspense Writers (Charles Scribner's Sons/ Gale)
 Black Writers 2, 3
 Black Literature Criticism, edition 1:2
 Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature, first edition, HarperCollins (1991)
 Being and Race by Charles Johnson (Indiana University Press, 1990), 
 Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban by James W. Coleman (University of Kentucky Press, 2001)
 Black American Writers Past and Present (1975)
 Black Imagination and The Middle Passage edited by Maria Diedrich et al., Oxford, 
 Broadside Authors and Artists (1974)
 Contemporary African-American Novelists (Greenwood, 1999)
 Contemporary Black Biography (Gale, 1995)
 Clark, Keith, Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama (Indiana, 2001), 
 Cyclopedia of World Authors. Third edition, Volume 5 (Salem Press, 1997)
 Mackey, Nathanial, Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cross-Culturality, and Experimental Writing (Cambridge)
 Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 33 (Gale, 1984)
 African American National Biography (2012)
 Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition
 A Directory of American Poets (ongoing)
 Fabre, Michel, and John A. Williams, A Street Guide to African-Americans in Paris (Afram, 1996)
 Directory of American Scholars (1982, 1999, 2002)
 Encyclopedia of American Literature (1999)
 Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century (Third edition St. James Press, 1999)
 Finkenstaedt, Rose L. H., Face to Face (Morrow)
 Fabre, Michel, From Harlem to Paris (University of Illinois Press, 1991)
 Byerman, Keith, Fingering the Jagged Grain (University of Georgia Press)
 In Black and White: A Guide to Magazine Articles, Newspaper Articles, and books etc. (Third edition 1980)
 The International Who's Who (ongoing)
 Brennan, Jonathan, When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote: African-Native American Literature (University of Illinois Press, 2003), 
 Who's Who in the World 29th Edition 2012
 Who's Who in America (ongoing)
 Who's Who Among African Americans (ongoing)
 Who's Who Among Black Americans (ongoing)
 Who's Who in U. S. (1988)
 Who's Who in the Media and Communications (1997)
 Who's Who in the West (Marquis/ ongoing)
 Who's Who in Writers, Editors and Poets (1992)
 Who's Who in Entertainment
 International Who's Who in Poetry (ongoing)
 People Weekly February 7, 1994, Volume 41, Number 5
 Fabre, Michel, La Rive Noire (Lieu Commun)
 Larousse Dictionary of Writers
 The Lincoln Library of Language Arts (Frontier Press, 1978)
 Salzman, Jack, Major Characters in American Fiction (A Henry Holt Reference Book, 1994), 
 Magill, Frank N., Masterpieces of African-American Literature (HarperCollins)
 Modern American Literature (Fifth edition 1999)
 Murray, Rolland, Our Living Manhood: Literature, Black Power, and Masculine Ideology (UPenn Press, 2007)
 The Negro Almanac (ongoing)
 Bell, Bernard, The Afro-American Novel and its Tradition (U Mass)
 Bell, Bernard, The Contemporary African American Novel (U Mass)
 King, L., and L. F. Selzer (eds), New Essays on The African American Novel (2008)
 Cornis-Pope, Marcel, Narrative Innovation and Cultural Rewriting in the Cold War Era and After
 The Oxford Companion to African American Literature (Oxford University Press, 1997)
 The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
 The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English (Oxford University Press, 1996)
 Valade, R. M., The Essential Black Literature Guide (Visible Ink)
 The Schomburg Center Guide to Black Literature (Gale, 1996)
 Selected Black American, African, and Caribbean Authors (1985)
 Selected Black American Authors (1977)
 Gussow, Adam, Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition (University of Chicago Press, 2002)
 Southern Black Creative Writers 1829–1953 (Greenwood Press, 1988)
 McCaffery, Larry, Some Other Frequency (University of Pennsylvania Press)
 The Writers Directory (ongoing)
 The Poet's Encyclopedia
 Collier's Encyclopedia
 Jimoh, Yemisi, / (University of Tennessee Press)
 Klinkowitz, Jerome, The Practice of Fiction in America
 Klinkowitz, Jerome, and Roy Behrens, The Life of Fiction (University of Illinois Press)
 JKlinkowtz, Jerome, Literary Disruptions (University of Illinois Press)
 Klinkowitz, Jerome, Keeping Literary Company (SUNY)
 Hathaway, Heather, Josef Jarab, and Jeffrey Melnick, Race and the Modern Artist (Oxford University Press, 2003)
 Smith, M. W., Reading Simulacra: Fatal Theories for Postmodernity (State University of New York Press, 2001), 
 Soitoes, Stephens F., The Blues Detective: A Study of African-American Detective Fiction, University of Massachusetts Press, 1996, 
 Platt, Len, and Lee Upstone, Postmodern Literature and Race. New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 
 Reed, Anthony, Freedom Time: The Poetics and Politics of Black Experimental Writing (the Callaloo African Diaspora Series), 
 Mullen, Harryette, and Hank Lazer, Cracks Between What We Are and What We Are Supposed To Be: Essays and Interviews, , August 6, 2012
 Newton, Keith, The Columbia Granger Index to Collected Works. New York and London: Columbia, 
 Smetherst, James Edward, The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s, 2005, 
 Levine, Caroline, Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy... (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015), 

 External links 



  in the Givens Collection, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota

Category:Living people
Category:1936 births
Category:20th-century African-American painters
Category:20th-century African-American writers
Category:20th-century American male artists
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:20th-century American poets
Category:21st-century African-American artists
Category:21st-century African-American writers
Category:21st-century American essayists
Category:21st-century American male artists
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:21st-century American painters
Category:21st-century American poets
Category:American male novelists
Category:American male painters
Category:American male poets
Category:American anthologists
Category:Binghamton University faculty
Category:Brooklyn College faculty
Category:Novelists from New York (state)
Category:Painters from California
Category:University of California, Davis faculty
Category:Writers from California
Pubu:Lahabaya zaa
Pubu:Ninsala