Kevin Young was the first poet of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library Reading Series and read in 2005. Kevin Young is the author of six collections of poetry and the editor of four others. His first book, Most Way Home, was selected for the National Poetry Series by Lucille Clifton and won the Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares. His third book, Jelly Roll, was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Paterson Poetry Prize; his most recent book, Dear Darkness, was featured in the New Yorker and National Public Radio as one of the “Best Books of 2008.” He is currently Atticus Haygood Profesor of Creative Writing and English and Curator of Literary Collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University.