This Thursday, the English/Lyceum of Union University will be hosting award-winning poet Kevin Young, who will give a craft lecture and perform a poetry reading. Young is a professor of creative writing and English and curator of literary collections and the poetry library at Emory University in Atlanta.
He is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Book of Hours, which was featured on NPR’s “Fresh Air.”
“He is a big deal and a major voice in contemporary poetry,” Bobby Rogers,English professor, said.
Some of his other previous books include, Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels, which won a 2012 American Book Award and Jelly Roll: A Blues, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize.
His book The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness won the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize, was a New York Times Notable Book for 2012, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, and winner of the PEN Open Award.
“[Young] has also recently been interested in the influence of popular music on poetry and it should be a really entertaining reading,” Rogers said.
There will be a lecture Oct. 22 that will begin at 3:45 and last until 5 p.m. in Harvey Hall. Following the lecture, there will be an evening reading which will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Carl Grant Event Center. A book signing and reception will follow. All of the events are free and open to the public.
“Student’s lives will be changed upon hearing [him] speak,” Rogers said.
