East Baton Rouge Parish Library

Conversations with Yusef Komunyakaa, edited by Shirley A. James Hanshaw

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

contains biographical information

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

index present

non fiction

Conversations with Yusef Komunyakaa

bibliography

428926439

edited by Shirley A. James Hanshaw

Literary conversations series

Conversations with Yusef Komunyakaa brings together over two decades of interviews and profiles with one of America's most prolific and acclaimed contemporary poets. Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947) describes his work alternately as "word paintings" and as "music," and his affinity with the visual and aural arts is amply displayed in these conversations. The volume also addresses the diversity and magnitude of Komunyakaa's literary output. His collaborations with artists in a variety of genres, including music, dance, drama, opera, and painting have produced groundbreaking performance pieces. Throughout the collection, Komunyakaa's interest in finding and creating poetry across the artistic spectrum is made manifest. For his collection Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, 1977-1989, Komunyakaa became the first African American male to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Through his work he provides keen insight into life's mysteries from seemingly inconsequential and insignificant life forms ("Ode to the Maggot") to some of the most compelling historical and life-altering events of our time, such as the Vietnam War ("Facing It"). Influenced strongly by jazz, blues, and folklore, as well as the classical poetic tradition, his poetry comprises a riveting chronicle of the African American experience

Interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa / Rudolph Lewis -- Radio interview with Yusef Komunyakaa / David Houghtaling -- Conversation with Yusef Komunyakaa / Rebekah Presson -- Hotbeds and crossing over poetic traditions / Kristin Naca -- Terror aligned with beauty : a visit with Bloomington's Pulitzer Prize-winning poet / David R. Richards -- The body is our first music / Tony Barnstone and Michael Garabedian -- Yusef Komunyakaa / Toi Derricotte -- Survival masks : an interview with Yusef Komunyakaa / Sascha Feinstein -- Discovering the landscape with Yusef Komunyakaa / Elizabeth Cho -- Still negotiating with the images : an interview with Yusef Komunyakaa / William Baer -- Achieving clarity through contrasts : an interview with Yusef Komunyakaa / Shirley A. James Hanshaw -- Yusef Komunyakaa and Paul Muldoon / Suzan Sherman -- An interview with Yusef Komunyakaa / E. Ethelbert Miller and Zoe Anglesey -- Yusef Komunyakaa : blue note in a lyrical landscape / Fran Gordon -- Kevin Bezner interviews Yusef Komunyakaa / Kevin Bezner -- Komunyakaa's riff / Lary Bloom -- American voices and the cakewalk of language : Yusef Komunyakaa in conversation with Terrance Hayes / Terrance Hayes -- A finer form : T.J. Anderson and Yusef Komunyakaa in conversation / T.J. Anderson, Trudier Harris, and Jerry W. Ward -- Furious flower II : cross-pollination in the Diaspora / Tony Bolden -- A poet of suffering, endurance, and healing / Chris Hedges -- Komunyakaa and the Kolkata Book Fair : entries from a diary of a journey to India / Goutam Datta -- Yusef Komunyakaa / Dan Webster -- A conversation with Yusef Komunyakaa / Jeffrey Dodd and Jessica Moll -- Every tool became a weapon : talking with Yusef Komunyakaa about race and war / Tod Marshall