A quietly influential force in African American literature and art, Clarence Major makes his Penguin Classics debut with the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of Dirty Bird BluesThe PRH Audio book of Dirty Bird Blues by Clarence Major won a 2022 EARPHONE AWARD. Narrated by Dion Graham.A Penguin ClassicSet in post-World War II Chicago and Omaha, the novel features Manfred Banks, a young, harmonica-blowing blu...

Clarence Major is one of America’s literary masters. He has published numerous books, from novels to poetry and short story collections. Among his many accolades, he was a finalist for the National Book Award and a Fulbright scholar and received the PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award. His work has been featured in many literary journals, newspapers, and magazines, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Ploughshares.Whether ...

In the first volume to collect the paintings and drawings of Clarence Major, readers are offered six decades of unique, colorful, and compelling canvases and works on paper—works of singular beauty and social relevance. These works represent Major’s personal painterly journey of passionate commitment to art.This generous selection of more than 150 paintings and drawings shows us the melding of rich ideas and fertile images, the braiding of imagination and motif. With their pleasing...

PEN / REGINALD LOCKETT LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN LITERATURE • PRIZE-WINNING NOVELIST, POET, AND PAINTER • GEORGIA WRITER’S HALL OF FAME"A world traveler's notebook of gentle, affable observations."—The New York Times Book Review • “A remarkable mind and the talent to match.”—Toni Morrison, Nobel-prize winning author • “A very powerful book!”—Cornelius Eady • “Radiant with attentiveness and loving compassion”—Rikki Ducornet • “A feast to b...

Lavish praise for come by here"With elegant simplicity and uncommon wisdom, Clarence Major gives us not just the truth of his mother's life but the unspoken truth behind the lie of color in the American story. A compelling narrative."-- Rilla Askew, author, Fire in Beulah"A brilliant rendering of a rich and eventful life. With creative insight, love, and admiration, Major shows us how in family life down through the generations, race really matters."-- Andrew ...

An engaging new novel by African-American literary icon Clarence Major reveals personal and political parallels between the past and present. What happens when the drive to succeed professionally collides with ambitions of the heart? In The Lurking Place, James Eric Lowell, a young Black poet, strives to advance his career and extend his whirlwind romance with his white lover, Sophia. Set in New York City and Mexico during 1968—a time of political upheaval and social change—this cinematic ...

Clarence Major is a consummate artist whose work in poetry, fiction, and painting has been widely recognized. He has been part of twenty-eight group exhibitions, has had fifteen one-man shows, and has published fourteen collections of poetry and nine works of fiction. Major’s works—and this collection in particular—are distinguished by his poetic sociability and his unblinking but generous and affectionate portraiture.In From Now On, a retrospective of poems from the 1950s...

Deeply felt and brimming with humor and philosophical inquiry, Sporadic Troubleshooting, the latest volume from Clarence Major, both acknowledges poetic literary tradition and explores exciting new territories in language. Throughout, Major uses an improvisational technique, applying it to well-known mythological stories to enhance narrative and lyrical intensity. Breathtakingly vivid, these poems are testaments to universal subjects such as love, charity, nature, fear, survival, ...

Originally published in 1986, this new edition returns to print a classic, influential work of American fictionThe author of the acclaimed novel Reflex and Bone Structure returns here in My Amputations to the question of identity, the double, adventure, detection, and mystery, but with more hypnotic power and range. In My Amputations he has his protagonist, Mason Ellis (who may just be “a desperate ex-con” or a wronged American n...

Beginning and ending in Clarence Major’s atelier, My Studio demonstrates how art can influence our perception of the world, prompting “all the parts [to] coalesce into a cohesive whole.” With precise and engaging imagery, Major contemplates the spaces we occupy and the “beauty in everyday things” from the familiarity of his studio. “This is more than a room,” he observes. “It’s an unimpeded mental vista.”Major harnesses both humor and seriousness to investigate a wide rang...

A quietly influential force in African American literature and art, Clarence Major makes his Penguin Classics debut with the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of Dirty Bird BluesThe PRH Audio book of Dirty Bird Blues by Clarence Major won a 2022 EARPHONE AWARD. Narrated by Dion Graham.A Penguin ClassicSet in post-World War II Chicago and Omaha, the novel features Manfred Banks, a young, harmonica-blowing blu...

Clarence Major is an award-winning painter, fiction writer, and poet—as well as an essayist, editor, anthologist, lexicographer, and memoirist. He has been part of twenty-eight group exhibitions, has had fifteen one-man shows, and has published fourteen collections of poetry and nine works of fiction. The Art and Life of Clarence Major is the first critical biography of this innovative African American writer and visual artist. Given the full cooperation of his subject, Keith E. B...