CRITICISM

Asali, Muna, and Yusef Komunyakaa. “An Interview with Yusef Komunyakaa.” New England Review 16, no. 1 (winter 1994): 141-7.

An interview, conducted in 1992, in which Komunyakaa discusses the themes of personal and collective identity in his poetry.

Aubert, Alvin. “Rare Instances of Reconciliation.” Epoch 38, no. 1 (spring 1989): 67-72.

A review of Dien Cai Dau.

Baer, William, and Yusef Komunyakaa. “Still Negotiating with the Images: An Interview with Yusef Komunyakaa.” Kenyon Review 20, nos. 3-4 (summer-fall 1998): 5-29.

An interview in which Komunyakaa discusses the significance of his childhood in Louisiana and his experiences in the Vietnam War on his poetry.

Derricotte, Toi. “The Tension between Memory and Forgetting in the Poetry of Yusef Komunyakaa.” Kenyon Review 15 (fall 1993): 217-22.

Discussion of central themes in the poetry of Komunyakaa.

Gotera, Vincente F. “Killer Imagination.” Callaloo 13 (spring 1990): 364-71.

Review of Dien Cai Dau.

Jones, Kirkland C. “Folk Idiom in the Literary Expression of Two African American Authors: Rita Dove and Yusef Komunyakaa.” In Language and Literature in the African American Imagination, edited by Carol Aisha Blackshire-Belay, pp. 149-65. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1992.

Discussion of the elements of African American folk culture in the poetry of Komunyakaa.

Waniek, Marilyn Nelson. “The Gender of Grief.” Southern Review 29 (1993): 405-19.

Review of Magic City.

Additional coverage of Komunyakaa's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: African American Writers, Ed. 2; Black Literary Criticism Supplement; Contemporary Authors, Vol. 147; Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 83; Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vols. 86, 94; Contemporary Poets, Ed. 7; Contemporary Southern Writers; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 120; Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, Ed. 3; Literature Resource Center; Poetry for Students, Vol. 5; and Reference Guide to American Literature, Ed. 4.