In Dean Young's sprawling and subversive first book of prose on poetry, imagination swerves into primitivism and surrealism and finally toward empathy. How can recklessness guide the poet, the artist, and the reader into art, and how can it excite in us a sort of wild receptivity, beyond craft? "Poe[...]
"Young has always stood out for his sharp humor, boundless poetic energy, and sheer readability. If adventurous poetry can sometimes feel like a tenuous tightrope walk, Young's poems feel more like zip lines."--"The Boston Globe""This book reads like a long, breathless thank-you for life's seemingly[...]
"The big event in poetry for 2015 will likely be the long-awaited resurrection of Frank Stanford."--NPR.org""What About This.".. introduces to a broader audience an important and original American poet -- sensitive, death-haunted, surreal, carnal, dirt-flecked and deeply Southern -- whose promise, o[...]
No one is unsure if they've read a poem by Dean Young. The power and sheer curiosity of the poems in this book leave a mark: you are in your pajamas/eating cold pizza/when you decide to make a coyote. Now all you need is a pregnant coyote. Darling, if you were here, I'd try/to lick your heart. What [...]