Kevin Young
Kevin Young
Full Name and Common Aliases
Kevin Delaplaine Young is an American poet, critic, and scholar. He is commonly referred to as Kevin Young.
Birth and Death Dates
Born on June 8, 1970, in Louisville, Kentucky, United States.
Nationality and Profession(s)
American poet, critic, editor, and academic. Currently serving as the Director of the American Literature section at Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute.
Early Life and Background
Young grew up in a family that valued literature and poetry. His parents were both educators who encouraged his love for reading and writing from an early age. He developed a passion for poetry, particularly African-American poetry, which laid the foundation for his future career as a poet and scholar. Young attended Louisville Male High School before enrolling at the University of Kentucky.
Major Accomplishments
Young's academic journey took him to various esteemed institutions, including the University of New Mexico (MFA) and Harvard University (Ph.D.). His notable achievements include:
Awards and Honors: Winner of the 2017 Lenore Marshall Prize for his collection _Brown_.
Editorial Roles: Served as a poetry editor at the _Nation Magazine_ from 2008 to 2010.
Academic Contributions: Authored several books on American literature, including _The Grey Album: Altered Images of Common Objects_, which explores how images shape our understanding of reality.Notable Works or Actions
Young's notable works include:
*_Brown_ (2018): A poetry collection that delves into themes of identity, history, and the search for meaning.
*_The Grey Album: Altered Images of Common Objects_ (2000): An exploration of how images influence our perceptions of reality.
_The Art of Losing: Poets on Love and Death_ (2019): A collection of poems that grapple with love, loss, and mortality.
Impact and Legacy
Kevin Young's contributions to the literary world are multifaceted:
His poetry collections offer powerful explorations of identity, history, and the human condition.
As a critic and editor, he has played a significant role in shaping the literary landscape by championing underrepresented voices and pushing the boundaries of traditional forms.
* Young's academic work continues to inspire new generations of scholars and writers.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Kevin Young is widely quoted and remembered for his unique voice, which blends lyricism with intellectual rigor. His ability to engage with complex themes while maintaining a sense of accessibility has made him a beloved figure in the literary community.
Quotes by Kevin Young
Kevin Young's insights on:
Here are the facts: my folks grew up so poor that, in the words of Redd Foxx, there were twenty o's between the p and r.
I write about what hoaxers do, but I also want us to think about what believers do. Why do we want to believe a story like James Frey's 'A Million Little Pieces?' Why did we want to believe that Lance Armstrong really did all these things that, looking back, seemed impossible?
Footnotes are for proving and showing where you've been. Also, they're for the curious - they can then go and find the information on their own.
For 'The Grey Album,' I'd been thinking about the good side of lying - lying as a kind of improvisatory act in black culture. Afterward, it nagged at me because there are those other kinds of lies that I think are all around us, and I was fascinated about hoaxes in general. So 'Bunk' became a natural extension of 'The Grey Album.'
A DJ draws a connection between two seemingly disparate things and says, 'Look, they are alike. You can dance to them.'
In a long poem or a sequence of poems, you're trying to formalize your obsessions and give them a shape and a name. The key is to realize if the connections you are making are ones with resonance.
It took a while for anyone to want to publish 'To Repel Ghosts.' I thought people would want to publish a three-hundred-and-fifty-page book about a dead painter, but they didn't.
Harper Lee's novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird' became iconic almost immediately after appearing in 1960: best-seller status; the Pulitzer Prize the next year; a classic movie soon after, with Gregory Peck in an Academy Award-winning role.
Race is the true protagonist of the American novel. Our most popular classic fictions have known this, from 'Moby Dick' to 'Beloved;' all these books take on race or talk it out, often in other forms; they are less 'horror stories for boys' than ghost stories from a haunted conscience.