Poet Yusef Komunyakaa will be visiting campus on April 21st to accept his Distinguished Alumni Award. He will be giving a public reading that evening. Komunyakaa finished the English MA program in 1978 (Poetry), before it was converted to an MFA. He has gone on to become one of the most respected names in American letters, publishing scores of collections of poetry, essays, and librettos. Until 2015, Komunyakaa was he only African American man to have received the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Komunyakaa’s accolades are too numerous to list here. You can learn more and access some of his work at this and other sites: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/yusef-komunyakaa