The Department of Writing and the School of Humanities and Sciences are pleased to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa as part of this semester's Distinguished Visiting Writers Series. He will read from his work on Tuesday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m. in Park Hall Auditorium. The reading is free and open to the public.
Yusef Komunyakaa is the author of 12 books of poetry, among them Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994. His Thieves of Paradise (1998) and Talking Dirty to the Gods (2000) were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
About his work, the poet Toi Derricotte writes, "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 served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1999 to 2005. He has taught at the University of New Orleans, Indiana University, and Princeton University. He is currently professor and distinguished senior poet at New York University.
Books by the author will be for sale, and a book signing will follow the reading. For more information, visit the DVW webpage at https://www.ithaca.edu/hs/depts/writing/dvw/ or contact Jack Wang at 607-274-3493 or [mailto:wang@ithaca.edu].
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20080317210214336