Clarence Major

Poet, novelist, and painter Clarence Major was born in 1936 in Atlanta, Georgia. He received a B.S. from the State University of New York and a Ph.D. from the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities. His books of poetry include Waiting for Sweet Betty (Copper Canyon Press, 2002); Configurations: New & Selected Poems 1958-1998 (1999); Parking Lots (1992, illustrated by Laura Dronzek); Some Observations of a Stranger at Zuni in the Latter Part of the Century (1998); Surfaces and Masks (1987); Inside Diameter: The France Poems (1985); Symptoms and Madness (1971); Swallow the Lake (1970); and Fires That Burn in Heaven (1954). His is the author of more than eight novels including Dirty Bird Blues: A Novel (1996); Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar (1988); Fun and Games (1988); Such Was the Season (1987); and Reflex and Bone Structure (1975). Recent prose offerings include Trips: A Memoir (2001) and Afterthought: Essays and Criticism (2000). He is also the editor of many anthologies and books such as The Garden Thrives: Twentieth-Century African-American Poetry (1995); Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (1994); and The Dark and Feeling: Black American Writers and Their Work. Among his many honors and awards are a Western States Book Award for Fiction, a Pushcart Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a National Council on the Arts Fellowship. Clarence Major is professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of California, Davis.