The Joshua Ringel Memorial Reading celebrates its 12th
season at 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 26,
when poet Kevin Young takes to the Hodson Hall podium on
the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus.
"Tender, sassy and just plain cool" is how former
Ringel Poet Billy Collins describes Young, widely
regarded as one of the leading poets of his generation.
A 2003 National Book Award nominee, Young is a regular
contributor to The New Yorker and
other publications. His most recent collection is Dear
Darkness (2008).
Young has written five other volumes of poetry:
Most Way Home (1995), a National Poetry
Series selection; To Repel Ghosts (2001); Jelly
Roll: A Blues (2003); Black Maria (2005); and
For the Confederate Dead (2007).
Poet Lucille Clifton says of Young, "[His] gift of
storytelling and understanding of the music
inherent in the oral tradition of language recreates for us
an inner history which is compelling and
authentic and American."
Young is the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and
Creative Writing and curator of the
Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, a 75,000-volume rare book
library, at Emory University.
"Writing is a necessity," Young says. "It's not just
fun, though it can be fun, and it's not just
torture, though it can be torture, too. I think the point
is really to find that middle ground between
pleasure and necessity, and for me that's what a poem
is."
The Joshua Ringel Memorial Fund was established in
1998 by the Ringel family in memory of the
former Center for
Talented Youth student whose life was tragically cut
short in a motorcycle accident just before his 28th
birthday. The fund supports an annual lecture/reading
dedicated to education,
poetry and the imagination. Past visiting poets have
included Kenneth Koch, Robert Pinsky, Grace Paley,
John Ashbery and Sharon Olds.
A reception at 4:30 p.m. precedes the event, with a
book signing immediately after. Books will
be available for purchase at the door. Seats are limited,
so attendees should e-mail
ctypr@jhu.edu with their name and number of seats
requested.
For more information, go to
www.cty.jhu.edu/ringel.
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