Into the middle distance
Brenna Womer Thunderclouds in the Forecast by Clarence Major, Northwestern University Press, 2021. Painter, novelist, professor, and poet Clarence Major has been leaving his mark on the arts and literature scene since his teenage years when he began writing poetry. In the late 1950s, he started his own literary magazine, Coercion Review, in which he published the likes of Henry Miller and Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Major’s first novel, All Night Visitors, was published in 1969, followed shortly by his first collection of poetry. Over the course of his illustrious career, Major has taught writing and literature at numerous colleges and universities, including Howard University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of California Davis, where he is now Professor Emeritus. In 1970, his first poetry collection, Swallow the Lake, won the National Council on the Arts Award; his short story “My Mother and Mitch” was awarded the Pushcart Prize in 1989, and his poetry collection, Configurations, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001. He was awarded the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Throughout his long career, Major’s writing has been praised for its disruptive and experimental nature, qualities his latest work continues to exhibit and embrace. In his new novel, Thunderclouds in the Forecast, Major offers readers a glimpse into the life of Raymond Jansen, a young Black man in his late twenties who, by a twist of fate or coincidence,