in its focus on personal, autobiographical experience in contrast to the later poetry, which he characterizes as less immediately personal and grounded more in books and scholarship than in lived experience. However, in discussing Wright's first five volumes of poetry, from Death as History to The Double Invention of Komo, Gerald Barrax sees a thematic and technical unity, describing these books as "so remarkably unified and consistent in subject, theme, tone, and technique that they might all constitute a single work." Indeed, Wright himself has suggested that his books up to Explications/Interpretations (excluding the disowned chapbook Death as History) constitute a unified, ordered series, “a dramatic process, with all its tensions and resolutions.” Furthermore, the back cover copy of 2007's The Guide Signs: Book One and Book Two suggests that that volume, together with the eight volumes brought together in Transfigurations: Collected Poems, should be read as a single work. Awards 1986 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (or "Genius") Fellowship 1996 Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets 2001 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award, Transfigurations: Collected Poems 2005 Bollingen Prize in Poetry, becoming the first African-American writer to be so honored 2006 American Book Award Lifetime Achievement Award from the Before Columbus Foundation Bibliography Poetry Death as History. New York: Poets Press. 1967 The Homecoming Singer. New York: Corinth Books. 1971 Dimensions of History. Kayak. 1976. The Double Invention of Komo. University of Texas Press. 1980 Explications/Interpretations. University of Virginia. 1984 Selected Poems of Jay Wright. Robert B. Stepto (ed.) New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1987. Elaine's Book. University of Virginia Press. 1988. Boleros. Princeton University Press. 1991 Music's Mask and Measure. Chicago: Flood Editions. 2007. The Prime Anniversary. Chicago: Flood Editions. 2019. Thirteen Quintets for Lois. Chicago: Flood Editions. 2021. Plays Balloons: A Comedy in One Act. Baker's Plays, 1968 The Geometry of Rhythm, in The Prime Anniversary. Chicago: Flood Editions. 2019. Prose "Introduction" in Dumas, Henry. Play Ebony: Play Ivory. Random House. 1974. Anthologies References External links Bollingen Prize website Book Review: Transfigurations Jay Wright's poetry focus of symposium at Washington University Jay Wright Poetry Reading at Columbia College Kenneth Koch and Jay Wright reading their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Nov. 15, 1976 1935 births Living people American male poets MacArthur Fellows Writers from Albuquerque, New Mexico People from Bradford, Vermont Bollingen Prize recipients People associated with the University of Dundee American Book Award