Kevin Young’s lyrical poems draw on themes of birth, death, food, heritage, New England and the South. The award-winning poet, this fall’s Bingham Visiting Writer, read a selection of new and old work to students. He read poems from his collections about the death of his father, the birth of his son, and his student/teacher relationship with poet Seamus Heaney. Mr. Young earned his A.B. in English and American literature from Harvard University and an MFA in creative writing from Brown University. He is the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English at Emory University in Atlanta.
“It’s pretty hard not to write about the death of one’s father, or the birth of one’s son. Making the poems good is the challenge. The toughest part is finding a form, a way to make it not a diary, but a kind of daybook, a charting of those instances—some of which are tentative and harrowing, but also a little funny.”