Kevin Young is the author of seven books of poetry, including Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels (Knopf, 2011) and Jelly Roll: A Blues (Knopf, 2003), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and won the Paterson Poetry Prize. He has been called “a leading poet of his generation.” Young’s poem “Ragtime” has been selected for the Poetry in Motion program and will be featured on MetroCards and in taxicab television screens across New York City starting in October 2012.
Young’s most recent book, The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness, won the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and appeared in March 2012. It has been widely reviewed, including in the San Francisco Chronicle, the daily New York Times and the Sunday New York Times Book Review—where it was also named an Editors’ Choice. He is still scheduling requests for r