Blue Laws, Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015

Longlisted for the National Book AwardA rich and lively gathering of highlights from the first twenty years of an extraordinary career, interspersed with B sides and bonus tracks from this prolific and widely acclaimed poet. Blue Laws gathers poems written over the past two decades, drawing from all nine of Kevin Youngs previously published books of poetry and including a number of uncollected, often unpublished, poems. From his stunning lyric debut (Most Way Home, 1995) and the amazing double album life of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2001, remixed for Knopf in 2005), through his brokenhearted Jelly Roll: A Blues (2003) and his recent forays into adult grief and the joys of birth in Dear Darkness (2008) and Book of Hours (2014), this collection provides a grand tour of a poet whose personal poems and political poems are equally riveting. Together with wonderful outtakes and...