Yusef Komunyakaa is the author of numerous books of poems, including The Chameleon Couch, Warhorses, Taboo, and Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize. Komunyakaa served as a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets from 1999 to 2005 and is currently Professor and Distinguished Senior Poet at New York University.