WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.350 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.350 --> 00:00:04.290 align:middle line:84%
Dean Young is the author
of five books of poetry--

00:00:04.290 --> 00:00:09.780 align:middle line:84%
Design With X, Beloved Infidel,
Strike Anywhere, First Course

00:00:09.780 --> 00:00:12.300 align:middle line:90%
in Turbulence, and Skid.

00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:15.780 align:middle line:84%
He was a student of nursing at
Indiana University for a year

00:00:15.780 --> 00:00:18.420 align:middle line:90%
after he received his MFA.

00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:21.210 align:middle line:84%
He has been a fellow at
the Fine Arts Work Center,

00:00:21.210 --> 00:00:23.850 align:middle line:84%
a Stegner fellow at
Stanford University,

00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:26.250 align:middle line:84%
and has received two
fellowships from the National

00:00:26.250 --> 00:00:27.965 align:middle line:90%
Endowment for the Arts.

00:00:27.965 --> 00:00:29.340 align:middle line:84%
Not to mention,
this evening, I'd

00:00:29.340 --> 00:00:32.065 align:middle line:84%
like to offer him the Jolly Good
Fellowship here at the Poetry

00:00:32.065 --> 00:00:32.565 align:middle line:90%
Center.

00:00:32.565 --> 00:00:35.220 align:middle line:90%


00:00:35.220 --> 00:00:37.530 align:middle line:84%
It comes with neither
cash nor prestige,

00:00:37.530 --> 00:00:42.210 align:middle line:84%
but it's undeniable
among everybody.

00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:44.655 align:middle line:90%
And what else about Dean Young?

00:00:44.655 --> 00:00:46.530 align:middle line:84%
He's on the faculty of
both the Iowa Writers'

00:00:46.530 --> 00:00:49.170 align:middle line:84%
Workshop and the Warren
Wilson Program for Writers.

00:00:49.170 --> 00:00:52.440 align:middle line:84%
He lives with his wife, novelist
Cornelia Nixon, and their cat,

00:00:52.440 --> 00:00:55.800 align:middle line:90%
Keats, in Berkeley, California.

00:00:55.800 --> 00:00:59.460 align:middle line:84%
Dean Young, oft considered
the wiliest of poets,

00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:04.530 align:middle line:84%
is an irreverent reverend of
the art, a master of whimsy who

00:01:04.530 --> 00:01:08.040 align:middle line:84%
will wham you with momentary
ontological clarity,

00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:10.470 align:middle line:90%
and then deny it was ever there.

00:01:10.470 --> 00:01:12.360 align:middle line:90%
He's both a skeptic--

00:01:12.360 --> 00:01:13.860 align:middle line:84%
I'm quoting, "I'll
believe nothing

00:01:13.860 --> 00:01:17.850 align:middle line:84%
that comes from any mouth,
not mine, not yours."

00:01:17.850 --> 00:01:21.360 align:middle line:84%
And he's also a frustrated
seeker of definitive meaning.

00:01:21.360 --> 00:01:23.730 align:middle line:84%
Quote again, "even
the context won't

00:01:23.730 --> 00:01:27.300 align:middle line:84%
tell the difference
between tear and tear."

00:01:27.300 --> 00:01:30.030 align:middle line:84%
It is in the periphery
of a sidelong glance,

00:01:30.030 --> 00:01:33.660 align:middle line:84%
that Young gets at what might
be called prescient vision

00:01:33.660 --> 00:01:35.310 align:middle line:90%
or higher truth.

00:01:35.310 --> 00:01:38.520 align:middle line:84%
These momentary
recognitions, deeply felt,

00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:41.820 align:middle line:84%
quickly drift back into
the fray of life and mind,

00:01:41.820 --> 00:01:45.300 align:middle line:84%
the only depths from which
they might again be born.

00:01:45.300 --> 00:01:49.770 align:middle line:84%
In the words of John Milton, "A
reverend sire among them came."

00:01:49.770 --> 00:01:51.120 align:middle line:90%
Please welcome Dean Young.

00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:54.470 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:01:54.470 --> 00:02:04.000 align:middle line:90%