Discover the Best Books Written by Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa (born April 29, 1947) is an American poet who teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. 

He also received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Komunyakaa received the 2007 Louisiana Writer Award for enduring contributions to the poetry world. His subject matter ranges from the general black experience through rural Southern life before the Civil Rights time period and his experience as a soldier during the Vietnam War.

After his service, he attended college at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where he was an editor for the campus arts and literature publication river run, to which he also contributed. He began to write poetry in 1973 and took the name, Yusef Komunyakaa. He earned his M.A. in Writing from Colorado State University in 1978 and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, in 1980. 

After receiving his M.F.A., Komunyakaa began teaching poetry in the New Orleans public school system and creative writing at the University of New Orleans. Komunyakaa taught at Indiana University until the fall of 1997 when he became an English professor at Princeton University. Yusef Komunyakaa is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at New York University.