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*, *[[Pushcart Prize|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]]*, *[[Baltimore Sun|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 magazine|Essence]]*, *[[The Massachusetts Review]]*, Chelsea, *[[Ploughshares]]*, *Witness*, *[[Boulevard (magazine)|Boulevard]]*, *[[Michigan Quarterly Review]]*, *[[Review of Contemporary Fiction]]*, *[[Trace (magazine)|Trace]]*, *[[Negro Digest]]*, *The Nickel Review*, *[Chicago] Sun-Times Showcase*, *John O'Hare Journal*, *[[Kenyon Review]]*, *New Myths/MSS*, *[[American Review (literary journal)|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 (magazine)|The Outsider]]*, *Poetry Miscellany*, *[[Unmuzzled OX]]*, *Yardbird Reader*, *Works*, *[[Callaloo (journal)|Callaloo]]*, *[[African American Review]]*, *[[New American Review]]*, *Brilliant Corners*, *A Gathering of The Tribes*, *Baa Sima* (Accra), *[[Black Orpheus (magazine)|Black Orpheus]]* (Nigeria), *El carno emplumado* (Mexico), *East and West* (India), *[[Fiddlehead (magazine)|Fiddlehead]]* (Canada), *Gedicht* (Antwerp), *Interspace* (France), *In Their Own Words* (Italy), *[[New Departures]]* (England), *Poetry* (England), *[[Pravda]]* (Moscow), *[[Quadrant (magazine)|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., *[https://ugapress.org/book/9780820349824/the-art-and-life-of-clarence-major/ 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.&nbsp;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