bibliography
books
Dear Darkness
- Alfred A. Knopf, 2008
One of ten "Books from Our Pages" listed in a recent New Yorker. Featured on NPR's "All Things Considered," and featured on "Chef's Table."
"Per page, per ounce, per dollar—whatever your preferred unit of measurement, Kevin Young must surely be one of the best entertainment values in today's poetry world. His books seethe with energy and ambition."
— San Francisco Chronicle
For the Confederate Dead
- Alfred A. Knopf, 2007
- Winner, Quill Award in Poetry 2007
- Winner, Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement 2008
"A lively and excellent collection. Even when they're sad, as they often are, Kevin Young's poems make you want to tap your feet. Young's language dances, and he has a wry humor that matches the sweet jazz beat of his voice. This is his fifth collection, but it has the daring and energy of a first book."
— Los Angeles Times
Black Maria
- Alfred A. Knopf, 2005
"Highly entertaining, often dazzling, and, as book reviewers like to say—but rarely about contemporary poetry—compulsively readable."
— The New York Times Book Review
Young's fourth collection, Black Maria—rhymes with pariah—is a "film noir in verse," a playful homage to the language and imagery of Hollywood detective films. The title, "Black Maria," is vintage street slang for "police van" and "hearse," as well as the name of Thomas Edison's first film studio. The poems follow the adventures of two characters, the private eye A.K.A.Jones, and the femme fatale Delilah Redbone, through "a maze of aliases and ambushes, sex and suspicions, fast talk and hard luck...."
Jelly Roll
- Alfred A. Knopf, 2003
- Winner, Paterson Poetry Prize
- Finalist, National Book Award
- Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize
"Irresistible...Young's short, snappy poems...swing, shimmy, jive, and jump off the page...Young's language is gorgeous and supple and deceptively simple. He plays off sound and rhythm the way few poets do—like Dylan Thomas or like the great Seamus Heaney...The poems in Jelly Roll should be required reading."
— Madison Capital Times
To Repel Ghosts
- Alfred A. Knopf, 2005 ("Remix" edition)
- New York Public Library "Books for the Teen Age," 2004
- Finalist, James Laughlin Prize for a second book
"A tour de force. This is not only compelling, innovative, contemporary poetry, it may be the best interpretive study yet of Basquiat's art."
— Art in America
Most Way Home
- William Morrow, 1995
- Winner, National Poetry series 1993, selected by Lucille Clifton
- John C. Zacharis First Book Prize, from Ploughshares
"First books rarely sing with such controlled music. Youn has a distinctive and unforgettable voice, virtuosic style, and mature command of his material. Any of these poems testifies to Young's genius. A marvelous book, a marvelous poet."
— Booklist
anthologies
- The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing, Bloomsbury, 2010
- Jazz Poems, Everyman Pocket Poets anthology, 2006.
- Selected Poems: John Berryman, Library of America's American Poets series, 2004.
- Blues Poems, Everyman's Pocket Poets Series. First anthology focused exclusively on the blues poem, 2003.
- Giant Steps: The New Generation of African-American Writers, Harper Perennial, 2000. Featured in USA Today, People, Chicago Tribune and other newspapers and national magazines.
rare publications
Kevin Young has done a number of broadsides and smaller, rare publications since he began publishing, starting with letterpress work at the Bow & Arrow Press, Cambridge. There he printed his first broadside, "Reward," which would become the first poem in his first book Most Way Home.
Since then broadsides and small editions have appeared from several different places. Most recently, Young's "Ode to Pork" appeared as a broadside from the Southern Foodways Alliance.
