SELECTED REVIEWS
NOVELS
All-Night Visitors Northeastern University Press (1969, 1998) ISBN 9781555533670
- “A sincere and passionate writer.”—The New York Times
- “As fresh and as exciting as an old Red Foxx routine.”—Kirkus Reviews
- “..an important addition to the history of 20th-century African American literature…”—Library Journal (starred review)
No Emerson Hall (1973) ISBN 0878290060
- “This is a probing, honest book…”—George Davis, The New York Times Book Review
Reflex and Bone Structure (1975, 1996) ISBN 1562790846; ISBN 9781562790844
- Major “is breaking the linear tradition in black literature, moving us from narrative to the crux of the moment.”—Ntozake Shange, MS. Magazine
- “…an exhilarating trip, with a new view at every turn…Cora couldn’t be more vivid.”—Thomas Lask, The New York Times Book Review
Emergency Exit (1979) ISBN 9780914590590
My Amputations (1986, 2008) ISBN 9781573661430
- Review from Denis Cooper Blog, by W. Lawrence Hogue
- “A provocative advance in contemporary American writing.”—Greg Tate, The Washington Post Book World
- “Clarence Major has a remarkable mind and the talent to match._–Toni Morrison
- “A novel that is simultaneously a deception and one great, roaring self-revelation.”—The Nation
- A picaresque novel that comes wailing out of the blues tradition: it is ironic, irreverent, sexy, on a first-name basis with the human condition…”—Richard Perry, The New York Times Book Review
Such Was The Season (1987, 2003) ISBN 9780916515683
- “…crammed with action, a dramatic storyline, and a meaty characterization…enriching…”—Al Young, The New York Times Book Review
- “…compelling and delightful…”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
- “…the ring of truth…a sort of cinema verité of common existence…”—The Los Angeles Times
- “Annie Eliza’s conversation is so engrossing, the reader puts the book down expecting to see her look at watch, exclaim at the time a start supper.”—Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar (1988, 2015), ISBN 978-0-8263-5600-0
- “Haunting, evocative…lyrical…”—Kirkus
- …distinctly spiritual, emphasizing the significance of traditional beliefs…”—Publishers Weekly
- Major “is one of the important contemporary writers of the American Indian tradition.”--Melus
Dirty Bird Blues Berkley Publishing Group (1996, 1997) ISBN 0425159035;ISBN 9781562790837
- “This is very durable American prose.”—Michael Silverblatt
- “Major at his greatest versatility…”—John A. Williams
One Flesh Kensington (2003) ISBN 9780758204738
- “Fresh and important…A significant new novel by an important writer…”—Robert Butler, African American Review
The Lurking Place (2021)ISBN ISBN 9781945665288
SHORT STORIES
Fun & Games (1990) ISBN 0930100344; ISBN 9780930100346
- Review from The Washington Post
- “…extraordinary technical and emotional force…Major…proves that he is one of only a handful of American writers capable of doing significant work in more than one genre.”—Russell Banks
- “A chameleon among American authors…”—Michaele Ross, San Francisco Chronicle
Chicago Heat and Other Stories (2016) ISBN 978-0-9968973-2-7
- “Masterful…profound authority…”—Madison Smart Bell
- “Unforced, heartfelt, and true, these stories are tonic for the soul.”—Gish Jen
POETRY
Swallow The Lake (1970), ISBN 0-8195-2054-3, ISBN 0-8195-1054-8
- “Major writes poems with the resistant, angular surface of tumbled brick. As if the poem has been literally smashed. An improvisational, jazz-like quality. Some tough, sharp observations…”—Kirkus Reviews
Symptoms & Madness (1971), ISBN 0-87091-065-5, ISBN 0-87091-064-7
Private Line (1971), Library of Congress card No. 76-160609
The Cotton Club (1972), ISBN 0-910296-62-6
The Syncopated Cakewalk (1974), ISBN 978-0-87929-024-5
Inside Diameter: The France Poems (1985), ISBN 0-905258-09-6
Surfaces and Masks (1988) ISBN 9780918273437
Some Observations of a Stranger at Zuni in The Latter Part of The Century (1989), ISBN 1-55713-020-5
Parking Lots (1992) Perishable Press limited edition handset type
Configurations: New and Selected Poems 1958–1998 (1999)
- Review from Obsidian
- “Passionate and controlled lyricism…The prevailing tonality of the poetry is quiet, almost philosophical…”—Library Journal
- “Major’s sparse, expertly constructed poems are like ladders luring readers away from the heavily trod, shadowy ground up into clear air, an ascent that places all the quick changes of the heart and mind into sharp perspective. But these gleaming word-ladders lead down, too, out of the thin air…back to the earth and body, to pain and rapture.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist
Waiting for Sweet Betty Copper Canyon Press (2002) ISBN 1556591799
- “Clarence Major is passionately committed to the aesthetics of language. His poems…demonstrate a tireless quest for the right word.”—Fanny Howe
Myself Painting LSU Press (2008) ISBN 9780807133668
- “A feat of wizardry…freewheeling abandon.”—Jake Marmer, Chicago Tribune
Down and Up (2013), ISBN 978-0-8203-4594-9; ISBN 0-8203-4594-6
- “I love the stark contrasts that run throughout Down and Up and the piercing images that so often cinch the poems endings…a vivid sense of how narrative and impulse inhabit the visual realm…”—Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer prize winning poet
- “…a poet who has mastered a language he owns…”—Yusef Komunyakaa, Pulitzer prize winning poet
- “…takes on the underlying Zen philosophy—it is not the destination but the journey…the constant revolving…”—Trista Edward, The American Literary Review
From Now On: New and Selected Poems 1970–2015 (2015), ISBN 978-0-8203-4796-7
- “Over the years, I have come to believe that Clarence Major is one of the most significant American poets of the past two decades…His is a catholic but intellectually and aesthetically rigorous practice.”—Susan Wheeler
- “…poems of remarkable revelation, rare insight, sophisticated lyricism, and authentic loy in the world. I return to his work to be uplifted, inspired…”—Sam Hamill
My Studio LSU Press (2018) ISBN 978-0-8071-6900-1
- “These ae poems that that…lean heavy into the circumstances and depth of their being…Major honors his inner wealth…”—Major Jackson
NONFICTION
Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (1970) ISBN 0-7178-0268-X Library of Congress Card Number 79-130863[5]
Black Slang: A Dictionary of Afro-American Talk London: Routledge (1971) ISBN 9780710071798
The Dark and Feeling: Black American Writers and Their Work (1974)
Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang (1994) ISBN 9780140513066
Necessary Distance: Essays and Criticism (2000) ISBN 1566891094
- “Clarence Major makes us see the universe…as a series of kaleidoscopic tableaux…”—Michel Fabre
- “What does Clarence Major not know how to do? To pose the question is to say the essential about his art…Major demonstrates that his talents…combine admirably…”—Marc Chenetier
- Major “is a writer whose work seems to have found as much of an embrace outside the African American community …as within….”—Greg Tate, The Village Voice
Come by Here: My Mother’s Life Wiley(2002) ISBN 9780471415183
- “With elegant simplicity and uncommon wisdom, Clarence Major gives us not just the truth of his mother’s life but the unspoken truth behind the lie of color in the American story. A compelling narrative.”—Rilla Askew, author of Fire in Beulah
- “A brilliant rendering of a rich and eventual life…”—Andrew Billingsley
Configurations Paintings by Clarence Major (2010) limited edition exhibition catalogue
Myself Painting Paintings by Clarence Major (2011) limited edition exhibition catalogue
Clarence Major and His Art: Portraits of an African-American Postmodernist, ed. Bernard W. Bell, (2001) ISBN 9780807848999
The Paintings and Drawings of Clarence Major (2019) ISBN 978-1496820686
- “I loved and learned something about and technique on every page.”_-Charles Johnson, National Book Award winning author of Middle Passage
- “…transforming the world into a new mode of perception…”—Alfred Corn
ANTHOLOGIES
The New Black Poetry, ISBN 978-0717801381 (1969).
Calling The Wind: 20th Century African-American Short Stories Harper Collins, (1993) ISBN 9780060183370
The Garden Thrives: 20th Century African-American Poetry (1996) Harper Collins ISBN 9780060553647
The Essential Clarence Major (2020) ISBN 978-1469656007
- “This isn’t just a book of great literature. This is a book of history.”—Jericho Brown
- “I found myself renewed after spending time with this work.”—Hanif Abdurraqib