Yusef Komunyakaa was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, in 1947. His numerous prose and poetry collections have won him various awards including the Pulitzer, William Faulkner and Hanes Poetry Prizes, as well as fellowships from the Louisiana Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. A professor in the Council of Humanities and Creative Writing Program at Princeton University, Komunyakka lives in New York City.
