{{Short description|American poet, painter and novelist (born 1936)}} {{Use American English|date=February 2025}} {{use mdy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Clarence Major | image = Clarence Major 2017.jpg | caption = Major in 2017 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1936|12|31}} | birth_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | other_names = | known_for = | occupation = Poet, painter, and novelist | awards = PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award, 2016 | spouse = {{marriage|Pamela Ritter Major|1980}}<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/major-clarence-1936/|title=Clarence Major (1936- ) •|first=Cheryl|last=Shell|date=October 27, 2018}}</ref> | children = 6<ref name="auto"/> | website = {{URL|https://clarencemajor.com/}} }} '''Clarence Major''' (born December 31, 1936) is an American poet, painter, and novelist; and winner of the 2015 "Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts", presented by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.<ref name="Poetry Foundation">{{Cite web|last=Foundation|first=Poetry|date=October 11, 2020|title=Clarence Major|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/clarence-major|access-date=October 12, 2020|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en}}</ref> He was awarded the 2016 PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref name=PENOaklandWinners>{{cite web |url=https://www.penoakland.com/awards-winners/ |title=PEN Oakland awards and winners |publisher=PEN Oakland |date=2016 |access-date=March 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514072907/https://www.penoakland.com/awards-winners |archive-date=May 14, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Biography == Clarence Major was born on December 31, 1936, in Atlanta, Georgia,<ref name=encyclopedia.com>{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/journalism-and-publishing-biographies/clarence-major|title=Clarence Major 1936–|website=Encyclopedia.com|date=May 11, 2018|access-date=November 15, 2021}}</ref> and grew up in Chicago.
Major is distinguished professor emeritus of 20th-Century American Literature at the University of California, Davis.<ref name="UCDavis, Emeritus">{{cite web|url=https://english.ucdavis.edu/people/cmajor|title=Clarence Major {{!}} Professor Emeritus|date=February 26, 2015 |publisher=Department of English, UC Davis}}</ref> His literary archives are in the Givens Collection of African American Literature, Anderson Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Minnesota.
==Teaching== Major has taught literature and/or creative writing at Brooklyn College, New York University, Queens College, Sarah Lawrence College, University of Washington, Howard University, University of Maryland, University of Colorado, Temple University, Binghamton University, the University of California at Davis and on a Fulbright-Hays Exchange award he taught American culture at the University of Nice, in France, 1981–1983. He left the University of Colorado in 1989 and he taught at the University of California, Davis, for 18 years before his retirement in 2007.
==Recognition== Major won a National Council on the Arts Award for his poetry collection ''Swallow the Lake'' in 1970, and the following year was awarded a New York Cultural Foundation grant for poetry. ''Reflexe et Ossature'' (1982), the French translation of ''Reflex and Bone Structure'' (1975), was nominated for the Prix Maurice Coindreau (1982). ''Such Was The Season'' (1987) was a Literary Guild book club selection in 1988. The same year, ''The New York Times Book Review'' recommended it on its annual "Summer Reading" list. ''Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar'' (1988) was cited by ''The New York Times Book Review'' as a "Notable Book of The Year" 1988. In 1990, his short-story collection, ''Fun & Games'', was nominated for the Los Angeles Book Critics Award.<ref name=AAREG>{{cite web|url=https://aaregistry.org/story/clarence-major-born/|title=Tue, 09.08.1936 {{!}} Clarence Major, Novelist, and Poet born|website=AAREG|access-date=November 27, 2022}}</ref>
Major won a Bronze Medal as a finalist for the National Book Award in 1999 for ''Configurations: New and Selected Poems 1958–1998'' (Copper Canyon Press).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/people/clarence-major/|title=Clarence Major {{!}} Finalist, 1999 National Book Awards|publisher=National Book Foundation|access-date=November 15, 2021}}</ref> He won the Pushcart Prize for the short story "My Mother and Mitch", in 1989.<ref name="UCDavis, Emeritus" /> In 2002, he won the Stephen Henderson Poetry Award for Outstanding Achievement, presented by the African American Literature and Culture Society. His 1986 novel ''My Amputations'' won the Western States Book Award and was republished in 2008 with an introduction by Lawrence Hogue. ''Dirty Bird Blues'' won the Sister Circle Book Award in 1999.
Major was awarded the International Literary Hall of Fame award (Chicago State University) in 2001. He received the "2015 Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts" from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.<ref name="auto"/> He was awarded the 26th annual PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award on December 3, 2016. In January 2017, ''From Now On: New and Selected Poems'' was nominated for the 2017 Northern California Book Award sponsored by The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.
In 2021, Major was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wuga.org/post/3-writers-be-inducted-georgia-writers-hall-fame#stream/0|title=3 Writers to be Inducted into Georgia Writers Hall of Fame|first=Jeanne|last=Davis|date=April 1, 2021|website=WUGA|publisher=University of Georgia|access-date=November 15, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://georgiawritershalloffame.org/honorees/clarence--major|title=Hall of Fame Honorees {{!}} Clarence Major|publisher=Georgia Writers Hall of Fame|access-date=November 15, 2021|archive-date=November 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211115092755/https://georgiawritershalloffame.org/honorees/clarence--major|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Anthologies== In a 1989 review for ''The New York Times'', Major stated: "At best, as with magazines, literary anthologies can keep the reader in touch with the esthetic temperament of the time."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/21/books/getting-a-yearful.html|title=Getting A Yearful|first=Clarence|last=Major|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 21, 1989|access-date=December 26, 2025}}</ref> He has edited several anthologies, most recently ''Calling the Wind: 20th Century African-American Short Stories'' (1993) and ''The Garden Thrives: 20th Century African-American Poetry'' (1996). His own work has appeared in ''The Norton Anthology of American Literature'' and ''The Pushcart Prize: The Best of The Small Presses'', among others.
==Periodicals== Major's fiction, poetry, nonfiction and book reviews have appeared in periodicals, including ''The New Yorker'', ''Harvard Review'', ''The New York Times Book Review'', and ''The Literary Review''.
==Visual arts== thumb|Self-portrait by Clarence Major
Major studied drawing and painting under the direction of painter Gus Nall (1919–1995) from 1952 to 1954. Major also attended sketch and lecture classes during the same period in Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago.<ref name="Poetry Foundation" /> Among his teachers there was Addis Osborne (1914–2011).<ref>{{cite book|title=The Paintings and Drawings of Clarence Major|chapter=The Education of a Painter|first=Clarence |last=Major|publisher=The University Press of Mississippi|isbn=9781496820716|page=10|date=2019}}</ref>
=== Education === Major has attended or received degrees from the following institutions:{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} * A Art Institute of Chicago (James Nelson Raymond scholar), 1952–54.<ref name=encyclopedia.com /> * Gus Nall Studio, Private Art Lessons, 1950–1954. * The New School for Social Research (French course only), 1971.<ref name=encyclopedia.com /> * Norwalk Community College, Norwalk Connecticut, 1972.<ref name=encyclopedia.com /> * Howard University, Washington D.C., 1974–1975. * State University of New York, Albany, B.S. 1976.<ref name=encyclopedia.com /> * Union Institute & University, Yellow Springs and Cincinnati, Ohio, Ph.D. 1978.
== Bibliography ==
=== Novels === * ''All-Night Visitors'', Northeastern University Press (1969, 1998), {{ISBN|9781555533670}} * ''No'', Emerson Hall (1973), {{ISBN|9780878290062}} * ''Reflex and Bone Structure'' (1975, 1996), {{ISBN|9781562790844}} * ''Emergency Exit'' (1979), {{ISBN|9780914590590}} * ''My Amputations'' (1986, 2008), {{ISBN|9781573661430}} * ''Such Was the Season'' (1987, 2003), {{ISBN|9780916515683}} * ''Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar'' (1988, 2015), {{ISBN|9780826356000}} * ''Dirty Bird Blues'', Berkley Publishing Group (1996, 1997), {{ISBN|9780425159033}}; {{ISBN|9781562790837}} * ''One Flesh'', Kensington (2003), {{ISBN|9780758204738}} * ''The Lurking Place'', Manic D Press (2021), {{ISBN|9781945665288}} * ''Thunderclouds in the Forecast'', Northwestern University Press (2021), {{ISBN|9780810144262}} * ''Dirty Bird Blues'' (2023), Penguin Classics, {{ISBN|9780143136590}} * ''The Glint of Light'' (2023), At Bay Press, Hardcover {{ISBN|9781988168999}}
=== Short story collections === * ''Fun & Games'' (1990), {{ISBN|9780930100346}} * ''Chicago Heat and Other Stories'' (2016), {{ISBN|9780996897327}} * ''Golden Gate and Other Stories'' (2023), {{ISBN|9798987172018}}
=== Poetry collections === * ''Swallow the Lake'' (1970), {{ISBN|9780819520548}}, {{ISBN|9780819510549}} * ''Symptoms & Madness'' (1971), {{ISBN|9780870910654}}, {{ISBN|9780870910647}} * ''Private Line'' (1971), Library of Congress card No. 76–160609 * ''The Cotton Club'' (1972), {{ISBN|9780910296625}} * ''The Syncopated Cakewalk'' (1974), {{ISBN|9780879290245}} * ''Inside Diameter: The France Poems'' (1985), {{ISBN|9780905258096}} * ''Surfaces and Masks'' (1988), {{ISBN|9780918273437}} * ''Some Observations of a Stranger at Zuni in the Latter Part of the Century'' (1989), {{ISBN|9781557130204}} * ''Parking Lots'' (1992), Perishable Press limited edition handset type * ''Configurations: New and Selected Poems 1958–1998'', Copper Canyon Press (1998), {{ISBN|9781556590900}} * ''Waiting for Sweet Betty'', Copper Canyon Press (2002), {{ISBN|9781556591792}} * ''Myself Painting'', LSU Press (2008), {{ISBN|9780807133668}} * ''Down and Up'' (2013), {{ISBN|9780820345949}} * ''From Now On: New and Selected Poems 1970–2015'' (2015), {{ISBN|9780820347967}} * ''My Studio'', LSU Press (2018), {{ISBN|9780807169001}} * ''Sporadic Troubleshooting'' (2022), {{ISBN|9780807176108}} * ''Four Days in Algeria'' (2025), {{ISBN|9781636281780}}
=== Nonfiction === * ''Dictionary of Afro-American Slang'' (1970), {{ISBN|9780717802685}} Library of Congress Card Number 79-130863<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Major|first=Clarence|title=Dictionary of Afro-American Slang|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED051353|journal=ERIC|year=1970 |language=en}}</ref> * ''Black Slang: A Dictionary of Afro-American Talk'', London: Routledge (1971), {{ISBN|9780710071798}} * ''The Dark and Feeling: Black American Writers and Their Work'', Okpaku Communications Corp (1974), {{ISBN|9780893881184}} * ''Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang'' (1994), {{ISBN|9780140513066}} * ''Necessary Distance: Essays and Criticism'' (2000), {{ISBN|9781566891097}} * ''Come by Here: My Mother's Life'', Wiley (2002), {{ISBN|9780471415183}} * ''Configurations Paintings by Clarence Major'' (2010), limited edition exhibition catalogue * ''Myself Painting Paintings by Clarence Major'' (2011), limited edition exhibition catalogue * ''Clarence Major and His Art: Portraits of an African-American Postmodernist'', ed. Bernard W. Bell (2001), {{ISBN|9780807848999}} * ''The Paintings and Drawings of Clarence Major'' (2019), {{ISBN|9781496820686}}
=== Anthology appearances === * ''The New Black Poetry'' (1969), {{ISBN|9780717801381}} * ''Calling the Wind: 20th Century African-American Short Stories'', HarperCollins (1993), {{ISBN|9780060183370}} * ''The Garden Thrives: 20th Century African-American Poetry'', HarperCollins (1996), {{ISBN|9780060553647}} * ''The Essential Clarence Major: Prose and Poetry'', University of North Carolina Press (2020), {{ISBN|9781469656007}}
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
== External links == * {{URL|1=http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/488 |2=Profile from the Academy of American Poets}} * {{official website|1=http://www.clarencemajor.com}} * {{URL|1=http://clarence-major.artistwebsites.com|2=Artist websites page}} * {{URL|1=http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/scrbg002.xml |2=Clarence Major archives}} in the Givens Collection, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Major, Clarence}} Category:Living people Category:1936 births Category:20th-century African-American painters Category:20th-century African-American writers Category:20th-century American male artists Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American painters Category:20th-century American poets Category:21st-century African-American artists Category:21st-century African-American writers Category:21st-century American essayists Category:21st-century American male artists Category:21st-century American male writers Category:21st-century American novelists Category:21st-century American painters Category:21st-century American poets Category:American anthologists Category:American male novelists Category:American male painters Category:American male poets Category:Binghamton University faculty Category:Brooklyn College faculty Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:Painters from California Category:University of California, Davis faculty Category:Writers from California