Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems 1977–1989

poetry by Komunyakaa
Also known as: “Neon Vernacular”

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African American literature

  • Phillis Wheatley's first book of poetry
    In African American literature: The turn of the 21st century

    … won the same prize for Neon Vernacular (1993), a collage of new and collected poems from seven previous volumes, ranging from Dien Cai Dau (1988), based on Komunyakaa’s service in the Vietnam War, to Magic City (1992), a tense and lyrical evocation of the poet’s boyhood in Bogalusa, Louisiana. When…

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discussed in biography

  • Yusef Komunyakaa
    In Yusef Komunyakaa: Neon Vernacular and Pulitzer Prize

    …1993 Komunyakaa published the collection Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems 1977–1989. Along with winning the Pulitzer Prize, it was the winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, given yearly by Claremont Graduate University for a collection by a mid-career poet. The poems included in the volume span Komunyakaa’s enduring…

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