Clarence Major is an award-winning poet, novelist, and painter. He was born in Atlanta and grew up in Chicago where he attended Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute. He taught at various universities and retired from teaching literature and creative writing at the University of California, Davis in 2007. His paintings have been part of twenty-eight group shows and fifteen solo shows. He is the author of fifteen collections of poetry; and eleven works of fiction. Clarence Major is the winner of the "2015 Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in the Fine Arts," presented by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Major was also awarded the PEN/ Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Literature.