Quincy Troupe is the author of 17 books, including 8 volumes of poetry; the latest: The Architecture of Language won the 2007 Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement. He received the 2003 Milt Kessler Poetry Award for Transcircularities: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2002), which was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 10 best books of poetry published in 2002 and also a finalist for the 2003 Paterson Poetry Prize.

Troupe is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing and American & Caribbean Literature at the University of California; the founding Editorial Director for Code Magazine; and former Artistic Director of Artists on the Cutting Edge. He was the 1^st official Poet Laureate of the State of California, appointed by Governor Gray Davis. He is currently editor of Black Renaissance Noire, a cultural and literary journal published by the Africana Studies Program and the Institute of African American Affairs at New York University.

He has published his poetry, articles and essays in over 200 publications worldwide. His poetry and prose have been translated into 14 other languages. Troupe has read his work throughout the world, has taught in Ghana, Nigeria and throughout the USA, and is currently an adjunct member of the MFA creative writing faculty at Stonecoast, the University of Southern Maine.

Troupe is the recipient of a 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award, as well as 2 other American Book Awards: Snake-Back Solos (Reed & Cannon, 1979) won in 1980 for poetry; and Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe (Simon & Schuster, 1989) won in 1990 for non-fiction. In 1991, Troupe received the Peabody Award for co-producing and writing the 7-part radio series, The Miles Davis Radio Project. He is a 2-time Heavyweight-Champion of Poetry (1994 & 1995) at The World Poetry Bout of Taos (New Mexico); has been a featured poet on 2 PBS television series on poetry: The United States of Poetry (1996), and Bill Moyers' The Power of the Word (1989) for which Mr. Troupe's segment, The Living Language, received a 1990 Emmy Award for Television Excellence.

His writing credentials include: editor of James Baldwin: The Legacy (1989); co-editor of Giant Talk: An Anthology of Third World Writing (Random House, 1975); co-author and producer of the television miniseries The Inside Story of Roots (Warner Books, 1978); and co-author of The Pursuit of Happyness (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2006), a New York Times best-selling book and a major motion picture starring Will Smith.

A screenplay version of his book Miles and Me: A Memoir (University of California Press, 2000) is scheduled for 2011; Hallelujah, which is on the life of Ray Charles, is scheduled for 2012; his new book of poems, Erranceties, will be published in 2011; and his book of non-fiction prose, Crossfertizations, will be released in 2012. He is writing his 1^st novel, The Legacy of Charlie Footman and an auto-memoir in 3-parts, The Accordion Years: 1965 to 2010. Troupe lives between New York City and Goyave, Guadeloupe, with his wife, Margaret.

Seven/Elevens; a new suite of poems

Untitled 1

words are dice thrown across floors,
gambling tables, where language circumvents who
won or lost, comes down to bets
lost in chips when snake-eyes dooms your first throw, though
turn a seven, eleven
after bones stop rolling you dance as though great
music, love  entered your soul

Untitled 2

living in the world is mostly about chance,
the draw of straws, or cards dealt
Untitled  # 2 (Cont'd), page 2, same stanza

in a game of poker, it's all about nerves,
how your eyes react in tight,
cold-blooded moments of chicken, will you fold,
cave in to raw fear, pressure,
will you become an improviser with chance,
probability living
inside this new moment offered you singing
as solo, the notion fresh
thoughts can carry art to new, profound plateaus

Untitled 3

walking beside a building
offers possibility of a falling
brick cracking your skull with death
coming in the blink of an eye, a dice throw
Untitled 3 (Cont'd), page 3, same stanza,

unfavorable to you
in that moment, the fickleness of chance, odds,
is an opaque, feckless risk

Tomas

tomas came whipping in suddenly, winds howled
through wet morning darkness, wings
of cold rain, drenching voices swirling anger
from a roiling, angry sea,
tree branches kneeled down as if they were blessing
snapped sugar cane stalks, whirlwinds
tossing leaves, switch-backing currents, closed hands held
tight together as in prayer,
benedictions raised up to God to spare us
holy terror like this one
Tomas (Cont'd), page 4, same stanza

whipping hurricane winds in from Africa

Untitled 4

eye hear cold voices whipping
my language of poetry wet with snapping
syllables, flying off white
pages full of dreaming, whirlwinds of rhythms
trying to create a form
history can walk through as pure poetry
rooted in language of place

Untitled 5

poetry is form drawing from nothingness, song
seeking language to create
metaphor, meaning, a vehicle through which
words shape themselves into sound,
Untitled 5 (Cont'd), page 5, same stanza

local elocutions mapping bird calls, grunts,
slippage of puns, word-plays, jokes,
the march of history's impact on tongues, words,
the chance mixing of races
splices jambalaya voices, tongues simmered down
in pots of creole culture,
food we eat today is language won or lost

Untitled 6

throw the bones again to see
where the dice stop rolling through life's chief moments
of chance, do they roll stopping
with snake-eyes, seven-eleven turning up
inside luck, ability
raised up from cultural fusion, risk, fresh modes,
language echoing the new