Yusef Komunyakaa won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book Neon Vernacular; Thieves of Paradise was a 1998 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Honors include the William Faulkner Prize from the Université de Rennes, the Thomas Forcade Award, the Hanes Poetry Prize, and the Bronze Star for his service as a correspondent in Vietnam. In 1999, he was elected Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Komunyakaa is a professor in the Council of Humanities and Creative Writing Program at Princeton University and lives in New York City. His most recent works are Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part 1, and Gilgamesh: A Verse Play.