From Now On

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. Majors worksand this collection in particularare distinguished by his poetic sociability and his unblinking but generous and affectionate portraiture. In From Now On, a retrospective of poems from the 1950s to the presentincluding selections from each of Majors previous books of poetry as well as a generous selection of new poemsMajor creates a vivid gallery of nimbly drawn characters. Here he establishes a voice that is singular and musical, one that draws witty, moving, and empathetic portraits of African American urban and country dwellers. Ultimately, this collection maintains Majors intimate, conversational poetry while simultaneously becoming more eclectic, multicultural, and cosmopolitan. Majors poetry is affable, but it suggests an insistence that we can connect with history and social change through the dynamic lives of the people we encounter daily.