Poetry. African American Studies. Clarence Major was a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry for CONFIGURATIONS, also available from SPD. In the follow-up, WAITING FOR SWEET BETTY, Major watches the world with careful longing to capture the exchanges and conflicts between person and place. Just as a painter juxtaposes colors and shapes, Major does the same with words, often writing as an outsider in foreign places. His subtle, conversational style is at once humble, playful, humorous, and studied, and his stories can be seen as well as heard: "I ride backwards to see what I'm missing. // Big pines and big skies ride up and down and around. Up and down and around then for a straight stretch. // A white pickup shooting along a white highway east with us. // Note that I'm trying to call home but cannot. // Sky and brush and pine and salt-earth curving sharply, tilting away"-from "Train Window Going and Coming."