Devorah Major is an American writer, editor, recording artist, and professor. She has won awards in

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

, and

creative non-fiction Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction or literary journalism or verfabula) is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contra ...

and is

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

's third

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

Biography

Major graduated from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

in 1976 after studying African-American Studies and Health Education. She is now a part-time senior adjunct professor at the

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...

. Major has toured Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, and all over the United States performing her poetry and speaking on panels focused on African-American poetry,

Beat poetry The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatione ...

, and poetry of resistance. She is the author of two novels and four books of poetry. Her fifth book of poetry, ''and then we became'' was published (in 2016) by

City Lights ''City Lights'' is a 1931 American silent romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. The story follows the misadventures of Chaplin's Tramp as he falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and ...

Bibliography

* ''An Open Weave''. Seal Press. 1995. * ''Street Smarts''. Curbstone Books. 1996. * ''Browned Glass Windows.'' Curbstone Books. 2002. * ''Where River Meets Ocean.'' City Lights Books. 2003. * ''With More Than Tongue.'' Creative Arts Book Company. 2003. * ''The Other Side of the Postcard.'' City Lights Publishers. 2005. * ''and then we became.'' City Lights Publishers. 2016. * ''Califia's Daughter: Poems''. Willow Books. 2020.

References

External links

Devvorah Majors home site

Major at City Lights

Major at CCA

Major at Good Reads
Living people 1950s births People from San Francisco 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets American women poets Writers from San Francisco San Francisco State University alumni 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Poets Laureate of San Francisco {{US-poet-stub