The Fall 2025 Zalaznick Reading Series kicks off with a reading by Kevin Young
Thursday, September 18, 5pm
Rhodes-Rawling Auditorium, Klarman Hall KG70

Kevin Young is the poetry editor of The New Yorker, where he hosts the poetry podcast, and is widely regarded as one of the leading poets of his generation. He was the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from 2008 – 2016, and served as Curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library—a 75,000-volume collection of rare and modern poetry housed at Emory University – from 2005 – 2016.

He is the author of sixteen books of poetry and prose, including Brown (Knopf, 2018); Blue Laws: Selected & Uncollected Poems 1995-2015 (Knopf, 2016), longlisted for the National Book Award; Book of Hours (Knopf, 2014), a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize for Poetry; and Stones (Knopf, 2021) a Library Journal Top Ten poetry titles of 2021, and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. His collection Jelly Roll: a blues (Knopf, 2003) was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next book of poetry will be Night Watch: Poems (Knopf, September 2, 2025).

His children’s book Emile and the Field (RHCB/Make Me a World, 2022) was illustrated by Chioma Ebinama and was one of the New York Times’ Best Children’s Books of 2022.

Young’s second nonfiction book, Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News (Graywolf Press, 2017), won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Nonfiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book, a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice” selection, and a “Best Book of 2017” by NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Smithsonian, Vogue, Atlantic, Nylon, BuzzFeed, and Electric Literature. Young’s previous nonfiction book, The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness (Graywolf Press, 2012), won the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and the PEN Open Book Award; it was also a New York Times Notable Book for 2012 and a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.

Young is the editor of ten other volumes, including The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton, 1965- 2010 (BOA Editions, 2012), The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink (Bloomsbury, 2012), and African American Poetry 1770–2020: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (Library of America, October 2020). He is series editor and wrote the introduction and forward for Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition. Most recently he was editor for A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker: 1925-2025 (Knopf, February 4, 2025).

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was named a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2020. In 2021 he was voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and elected as a Fellow of the Society of American Historians. In 2024 he received the Harvard Arts Medal.

Reception and book signing to follow in the English Lounge, 258 Goldwin Smith Hall

We are proud to partner with Buffalo Street Books at this event. Buffalo Street Books is Ithaca’s only non-profit independent bookstore, dedicated to serving its community through books and literary programming. Kevin Green's books are available online, in store, and on site at the reading. Show your student ID at BSB and get 10% off every day!

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Masking is encouraged.

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To be respectful of those with allergies and environmental sensitivities, we ask that you please refrain from wearing strong fragrances. The venue is wheelchair accessible and equipped with assistive listening technology. If you need additional accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us as soon as possible.

For more information about this event visit english.cornell.edu/zalaznick or email englishevents@cornell.edu. 

This event is presented by the Department of Literatures in English / Creative Writing Program at Cornell University.