Night Watch (UK Edition)
A richly evocative and moving collection about African American identity and history, this is an ode to home places and the dearly departed, and to what of them—of us—poetry can save.
In bellowing declarations of suffering and whispered prayers of faith, Night Watch speaks to an inner history which is compelling and authentic and deeply American, rippling with timely and devastating truths about the insidious nature of the American nation.
Praise for Night Watch (UK Edition)
“This exacting new collection by the prolific poet and essayist takes as one of its central themes the ability of artists to recast history, making an “implicit case that the poet’s job is to strip away layers of distortion to reveal and elevate narratives that have been hidden, ignored or erased. Night Watch continues one of the most vital currents in contemporary poetry, transforming history’s silences into lyric through the poet’s eloquent invitation: ‘O wounded soul,/speak.’” New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice
“In his most experimental volume to date, Kevin Young’s Night Watch crafts a melancholic and haunting collection of sequence poems that layers multiple literary traditions with a dexterity that amounts to a provocation of sonic and epic proportions.” Griffin Poetry Prize judges’ citation
“Brilliance… . [Young] illuminates the value of our experiences and our sense of connection to the world.” Minnesota Star Tribune
“An impressionistic and potent collection… . Young’s poems candidly and vividly trace the woven threads of loss and admiration, death and reemergence… .This elegant volume deepens the body of work by a significant American poet.” Publishers Weekly
“Concentrated, intricately crafted, richly evocative, peppered with song lyrics and conversational turns of phrase, alive with birds, trees, rain, and snow, Young’s poems delve into the mysteries of body and soul, memory and death, life and love.” Booklist