African American poet, essayist and dramaturge Jay Wright is most renowned for his powerfully rhythmic verse credited with giving voice to the African American experience in all its disparate constituent elements. The consciousness rendered in Wright’s verse represents a synthesis of elements of African history and tribal life, European history and cultural heritage from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance to modernity, and the experience of enslavement, enfranchisement, cultural alienation and assimilation that conspire to create the uniquely Afro-American experience. He has been awarded a National Council on the Arts grant, a Hodder Fellowship in playwriting from Princeton University as well as Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships. He is the author of Balloons: A Comedy in One Act (1968) and his collections of poems include  The Homecoming Singer (1971), Soothsayers and Omens (1976), Dimensions of History (1976), The Double Invention of Komo (1980) and Transfigurations (2000).