Clarence Major

Clarence Major is an American poet, painter, and novelist; winner of the "2015 Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts," presented by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. He was also awarded the "The 26th Annual PEN Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award 2016" on December 3, 2016.

Clarence Major was born 1936 in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in Chicago. As a teenager he started drawing and painting, writing poetry and fiction.

In his early twenties he started publishing his own literary magazine, Coercion Review, which featured poets and writers such as Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. As a teenager Major was influenced by the monumental Van Gogh Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, February 1 – April 16, 1950.

After a stint in the Air Force, two marriages, children, and two divorces, he left the Midwest and moved to New York City in December 1966. His first novel, All Night Visitors, was published in 1969 and his first collection of poems, Swallow the Lake, the following year. He briefly worked as a research analyst for Simulmatics, under the direction of sociologist Dr. Sol Chaneles. Major analyzed news coverage of the 1960s riots. He also did field work on the riots, in Detroit and Milwaukee, before turning, in 1967, to teaching.

First, he taught in Harlem at the New Lincoln School, in a summer program. He later taught modern American literature courses and creative writing workshops in universities. His first solo exhibition of paintings was at Sarah Lawrence College in the library in the early 1970s.

During this time he was also giving public readings of his poetry. He served on the editorial staff of several literary periodicals (such as Caw! and The Journal of Black Poetry) and wrote a regular column for American Poetry Review. He was the first editor of American Book Review. He read his poetry at the Guggenheim Museum, the Folger Theatre and in universities, theaters and cultural centers.

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