Night Watch

A haunting poetry collection about community, nationhood and resilience - from the T.S. Eliot Prize finalist

A new poetry collection about loss, legacy and African American history, from the poetry editor of the New Yorker

'One of the most important poets of his generation' Washington Post

Kevin Young's new poetry collection, written over sixteen years, tells stories of community, nationhood and resistance, inspired in part by other lives. He starts in the bayous of Louisiana, and speaks from the voices of Millie and Christine McCoy, the conjoined African American 'Carolina Twins' - born into enslavement who later toured the world as free women.

Young writes of grief and hope as familiar yet surprising states- 'It's like a language, / loss -', he writes, 'learnt only / by living - there - '. Evoking the history of poetry, Young's new collection is defiant and playful, elegant and devastating - his voice shaping sorrow with music, humour and wit.

'Keeping up with him is like trying to keep up with Bob Dylan or Prince in their primes' New York Times

About the Author

Kevin Young is the director of Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and poetry editor of the New Yorker. He was previously the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

He is the author of a number of books of poetry and prose, including Stones, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, Jelly Roll: A Blues, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry; and Bunk, a New York Times Notable Book, longlisted for the National Book Award. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.