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Clarence Major Professor of English

Clarence Major began teaching at UC Davis after holding positions at Temple University, SUNY - Binghamton, University of Colorado, University of Washington, Howard University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Brooklyn College. He is a versatile man of letters who writes poetry and fiction as well as non-fiction. He was recently nominated for the 1999 National Book Award in poetry for Configurations: New & Selected Poems 1958-1998 (Copper Canyon Press, 1999). His other recent books include Necessary Distance: Essays and Criticism (1998), and All-Night Visitors (1998).

Major reviews for The Washington Post Book World and has contributed to The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Book World, American Vision, Essence, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The American Review, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, The American Poetry Review, and more than a hundred other periodicals and anthologies in this country, Europe, South America, and Africa. In 1991 he served as fiction judge for The National Book Awards. He has served twice on National Endowment for the Arts panels, and in 1997-98 he served as judge for the Pen/Faulkner Awards. He has traveled extensively and lived in various parts of the United States and for extended periods in France and Italy. Clarence Major currently lives in northern California.

Honors

• Citation, The New York Times Book Review, Notable Book of the Year for Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar, 1990
• Citation, The New York Times Book Review, Notable Book of the Year for Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar, 1990
• Citation, The New York Times Book Review, "Summer Reading" list, Such Was The Season, 1988
• Award, Western States Book Award for My Amputations, Western States Arts Foundation, 1986
• Grant, US Informaiton Service, American Embassy, Paris, France, 1985
• Grant, I.R.E.X. (Poland) 1984-85

Publications

• One Flesh, New York: Kensington Books, 2003
• Such Was The Season, Louisiana State University Press, 2003
• Waiting for Sweet Betty,Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 2002
• Come by Here: My Mother's Life, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002
• The Pushcart Prize for story "My Mother and Mitch", Boulevard, 1989
• Necessary Distance: Essays and Criticism, Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2000
• All-Night Visitors, Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998 [reprint of 1969 OP edition]
• Configurations: New & Selected Poems 1958-1998 (Copper Canyon Press, 1999)
• Dirty Bird Blues, San Francisco: Mercury House, Inc., 1996; New York: Berkley [Putnam] Signature Edition, 1997 (pa.)
• The Garden Thrives: Twentieth Century African-American Poetry, ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1996
• Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang, New York: Viking, 1994
• Calling the Wind: Twentieth Century African-American Short Stories, ed., New York: Harper Collins/ An Edward Burlingame Book, 1993

Email: clmajor@ucdavis.edu