2007 Louisiana Writer Award Recipient

Yusef Komunyakaa

Bogalusa native and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa (koh-muhn-YAH-kuh) recieved the 2007 Louisina Writer Award. Komunyakaa was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on April 29,1947. His poetic interests are founded upon and driven by a wide range of influences that include the poetry of the Bible; the cultures of Africa as captured in blues, jazz and gospel music; the poetry of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks, and the Western canon in general. Of particular consequence are his childhood experiences of Bogalusa and later, the Vietnam War; during the war, he reported events from the front lines and edited a military newspaper as an “information specialist” in the army.

Komunyakaa credits reading James Baldwin’s Nobody Knows My Name as the catalyst for inspiring him to write; he began writing poetry while still in high school. His principal books of poems include Gilgamesh: A Verse Play (with Chad Gracia, 2006); Thieves of Paradise (1998), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems 1977-1989 (1994), which received the Pulitzer Prize and the Kingsley-Tufts Poetry Award; Dien Cai Dau (1988), which won The Dark Room Poetry Prize; and I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head (1986), winner of the San Francisco Poetry Center Award.

His honors include 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; the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; and the Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam. In 1999 he was elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets. Currently, he is Professor & Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program.