Kevin Young

Kevin Young's first book, MOST WAY HOME (William Morrow, 1995; Zoland Books, 2000), was selected for the National Poetry Series and won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares. His second book of poems, TO REPEL GHOSTS (Zoland Books, 2001), a "double album" based on the works of the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, was a finalist for the James McLaughlin Prize from the Academy of American Poets. Young's poetry and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Paris Review, the Kenyon Review, Paideuma, Callaloo, Fence, Verse, and elsewhere, and have been featured on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." The Village Voice named Young a "Writer on the Verge" in 2001. Young's latest book of poems, JELLY ROLL: A BLUES, a new collection of blues-based love poems, was released by Alfred A. Knopf in 2003, and hailed in a starred review by Publishers Weekly as "a versatile lyric tour de force." JELLY ROLL has been named a finalist for both the 2003 National Book Award in Poetry and the 2003 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry. JELLY ROLL was also awarded the 2004 Patterson Poetry Prize, which is given annually by the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College.

Young is also the editor of GIANT STEPS: THE NEW GENERATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS (HarperPerennial, 2000), which features poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by the next wave of black writers. He is also the editor of the Everyman Pocket BLUES POEMS anthology, which features a diverse range of poets, from Langston Hughes to Gwendolyn Brooks. A former Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University, Young is currently Ruth Lilly Professor of Poetry at Indiana University and the recipient of a 2003-04 fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. BLACK MARIA: POEMS PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY KEVIN YOUNG (Alfred A. Knopf) was published in February 2005.

During the 2005-06 academic year, Young will be on leave and teaching at Emory University.

Department of English
442 Ballantine Hall
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405-7103

Phone: (812) 855-8224