2015 Poet in Residence
Yusef Komunyakaa
On April 29, 1947, Yusef Komunyakaa was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, where he was raised during the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. He served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1970 as a correspondent, and as managing editor of the Southern Cross during the Vietnam war, earning him a Bronze Star.
He began writing poetry in 1973, and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado Springs in 1975. His first book of poems, Dedications & Other Darkhorses, was published in 1977, followed by Lost in the Bonewheel Factory in 1979. During this time, he earned his MA and MFA in creative writing from Colorado State University and the University of California, Irvine, respectively.
Komunyakaa first received wide recognition following the 1984 publication of Copacetic, a collection of poems built from colloquial speech which demonstrated his incorporation of jazz influences. He followed the book with two others: I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head (1986), winner of the San Francisco Poetry Center Award; and Dien Cai Dau (1988), which won The Dark Room Poetry Prize and has been cited by poets such as William Matthews and Robert Hass as being among the best writing on the war in Vietnam.
Since then, he has published several books of poems, including The Chameleon Couch (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011); Warhorses (2008); Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part 1; Pleasure Dome: New & Collected Poems, 1975-1999 (2001); Talking Dirty to the Gods (2000); Thieves of Paradise (1998), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems 1977-1989 (1994), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; and Magic City (1992).
Komunyakaa’s prose is collected in Blues Notes: Essays, Interviews & Commentaries (University of Michigan Press, 2000). He also co-edited The Jazz Poetry Anthology (with J. A. Sascha Feinstein, 1991), co-translated The Insomnia of Fire by Nguyen Quang Thieu (with Martha Collins, 1995), and served as guest editor for The Best of American Poetry 2003.
He has also written dramatic works, including Gilgamesh: A Verse Play (Wesleyan University Press, 2006), and Slip Knot, a libretto in collaboration with Composer T. J. Anderson and commissioned by Northwestern University.
About his work, the poet Toi Derricotte wrote for the Kenyon Review, “He takes on the most complex moral issues, the most harrowing ugly subjects of our American life. His voice, whether it embodies the specific experiences of a black man, a soldier in Vietnam, or a child in Bogalusa, Louisiana, is universal. It shows us in ever deeper ways what it is to be human.”
Komunyakaa is the recipient of the 2011 Wallace Stevens Award. His other honors include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the William Faulkner Prize from the Université de Rennes, the Thomas Forcade Award, the Hanes Poetry Prize, fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Louisiana Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
He was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1999. He has taught at University of New Orleans, Indiana University, as a professor in the Council of Humanities and Creative Writing Program at Princeton University. He lives in New York City where he is currently Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University’s graduate creative writing program.
WWBA's Poets-in-Residence Program
The annual Poet In Residence is proudly sponsored by WWBA. Each year the program features revered and distinguished contemporary poets who continue to embody Walt Whitman’s spirit of democracy, diversity and creativity.
Related Items
- “Poets To Come” Scholarship Award
- 2011 Poet In Residence C.K. Williams
- 2012 Long Island Poet of the Year: Mario Susko
- 2012 Poet in Residence Martín Espada
- 2013 Poet in Residence Naomi Shihab Nye
- 2014 Poet in Residence Li-Young Lee
- 2016 Poet in Residence Robert Pinsky
- 2017 Poet in Residence Marilyn Hacker
- 2018 Poet in Residence Vijay Seshadri
- 2018 Student Poetry Contest Guidelines
- 2019 Poet-in-Residence Jane Hirschfield
- 2020 Poet-in-Residence Juan Felipe Herrera
- 2020 Student Poetry Awards Ceremony
- 2021 Poet In Residence Forrest Gander
- 2022 Gwenn A. Nusbaum / WWBA “Poets To Come” Award
- 2022 Gwenn A. Nusbaum / WWBA “Poets To Come” Award
- 2022 Poet In Residence Natasha Trethewey
- 2022 Student Poetry Contest Guidelines
- Champions of Literacy
- GRAND CHAMPIONS 2022, Student Poetry Award Winners
- Long Island Poet of the Year Award
- 2009 Long Island Poet of the Year: Patti Tana
- 2010 Long Island Poet of the Year: Gladys Henderson
- 2011 Long Island Poet of the Year: Pramila Venkateswaran
- 2013 Long Island Poet of the Year: Fran Castan
- 2014 Long Island Poet of the Year: Annabelle Moseley
- 2015 Long Island Poet of the Year: Graham Everett
- 2016 Long Island Poet of the Year: Gayl Teller
- 2017 Long Island Poet of the Year: Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan
- 2018 Long Island Poet of the Year: Barbara Reiher-Meyers
- 2019 Long Island Poet of the Year: J R Turek
- 2020 Long Island Poet of the Year: Christina M. Rau
- 2021 Long Island Poet of the Year: Cliff Bleidner
- 2022 LI Poet Of The Year: Matt Pasca
- Poets-in-Residence
- Writers in Residence
Hours & Admission
Hours
Winter (Post-Labor Day through June)
Wed-Fri: 1-4 p.m.
Sat-Sun: 11-4 p.m.
Summer Hours (June 15 through Labor Day)
Mon-Fri: 11-4 p.m.
Sat-Sun: 11-5 p.m.
Admission Cost
Adults: $8
Seniors, Military & Groups: $7
Students & Kids over 5: $6
Kids 5 & under: Free