Yusef Komunyakaa, Poet & Librettist, was born in Bogalusa Louisiana; and his work is informed by experience and imagination. As a poet, his best known work is Neon-Vernacular (1993), a collection of poems for which he received the Pulitzer Prize. Recently, Komunyakaa has devoted much of his creative energy towards collaborative work with music, dance and theatre. Shangri-La is his fourth libretto for multimedia performance. His first opera, Testimony, on the life of Charlie Parker, premiered at the Sydney Opera House. Two upcoming works include Dream Horses, an opera with director Rhoda Levine and composer Anthony Davis for the Omaha Opera House and a new theatre work in progress, Gilgamesh.

Yusef Komunyakaa and Susie Ibarra are working on other collaborative projects; Tango Palace is based on love and tango; Fagen and His Ghosts is based on the Filipino-American War; Shapechanger is a new ensemble of poetry and music.