Yusef Komunyakka's eleven books of poems include Thieves of Paradise, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Neon Vernacular, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize. He teaches at Princeton University and lives in New York City.
Yusef Komunyakaa, April 29, 1947 - Yusef Komunyakaa was born April 24, 1947 in Bogalusa Louisiana, the oldest of five children. He graduated from Bogalusa Central High School in 1965 and joined the U.S. Army soon after. During his tour with the Army, Komunyakaa received a Bronze Star for his work as a correspondent and managing editor of the Southern Cross. Upon his return from the war, Yusef received his BA from the University of Colorado in 1975. He received his MA from Colorado State University in !978, and his MFA from the University of California at Irvine in 1980.
After his graduation from UC, Komunyakaa taught poetry in the New Orleans public school districts and then creative writing at the University of New Orleans. In 1985, he became an associate professor at Indiana University at Bloomington, where he held the Ruth Lilly Professorship from 1989 til 1990. He co-edited the Jazz Poetry Anthology and co translated "The Insomnia of Fire". Komunyakaa has written 13 books of poetry. In 1999, he was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and he is also a professor in the Council of Humanities and Creative Writing Program at Princeton University.
Komunyakaa has won countless awards for his many poems. Among the most prestigious are The Dark Room Poetry Prize for "Dien Cai Dau", the San Francisco Poetry Award for "I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head", and a finalist position for the National Book Critics Circle Award for "Thieves of Paradise". As well as the William Faulkner Prize from the Universite de Rennes, the Thomas Forcade Award, the Hanes Poetry Prize and fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Louisiana Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Perhaps the greatest of all of these achievements is the honor of having the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry bestowed upon him for Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems 1977 - 1989, along with the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.
