Night Watch - by Kevin Young (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Following on his exquisite Stones, Kevin Young's new collection, written over the span of sixteen years, shapes stories of loss and legacy, inspired in part by other lives. After starting in the bayous of his family's Louisiana, Young journeys to further states of mind in 'All Souls, evoking The 'Whale / who finds the shore / & our poor prayers.' Another central sequence, 'The Two-Headed Nightingale,' is spoken by Millie-Christine McCoy, the famous conjoined African American 'Carolina Twins.' Born into enslavement, stolen, and then displayed by P. T. Barnum and others, the twins later toured the world as free women, their alto and soprano voices harmonizing their own way. Young's poem explores their evolving philosophical selfhood and pluralities: 'As one we sang, / we spake- / She was the body / I the soul / Without one / Perishes the whole.' In 'Darkling,' a cycle of poems inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, Young expands and embroiders the circles of Hell, drawing a cosmology of both loneliness and accompaniment, where 'the dead don't know / what to do / with themselves.' 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, from the darkling thrush to the darkling plain, Young is defiant and playful on the way through purgatory to a kind of paradise. When he goes, he warns, 'don't dare sing Amazing Grace'-that 'National / Anthem of Suffering.' Instead, he suggests, 'When I Fly Away, / Don't dare hold no vigil . . . Just burn the whole / Town on down'"

Book Synopsis

From the award-winning poet at the height of his career, a book of personal and American experiences, both beautiful and troubling, touching on the generative cycle of loss and renewal

"Kevin Young is a poet of exceptional depth and sensitivity. . . . Let yourself focus on every phrase." --Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"Night Watch continues one of the most vital currents in contemporary poetry, transforming history and its silences into lyric through the poet's eloquent invitation: 'O wounded soul, / speak.'" --The New York Times

Following on his exquisite Stones, Kevin Young's new collection, written over the span of sixteen years, shapes stories of loss and legacy, inspired in part by other lives. After starting in the bayous of his family's Louisiana, Young journeys to further states of mind in "All Souls," evoking "The whale / who finds the shore / & our poor prayers." Another central sequence, "The Two-Headed Nightingale," is spoken by Millie-Christine McCoy, the famous conjoined African American "Carolina Twins." Born into enslavement, stolen, and then displayed by P. T. Barnum and others, the twins later toured the world as free women, their alto and soprano voices harmonizing their own way. Young's poem explores their evolving philosophical selfhood and pluralities: "As one we sang, /we spake-- / She was the body / I the soul / Without one / Perishes the whole."
In "Darkling," a cycle of poems inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, Young expands and embroiders the circles of Hell, drawing a cosmology of both loneliness and accompaniment, where "the dead don't know / what to do / with themselves." 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, from the darkling thrush to the darkling plain, Young is defiant and playful on the way through purgatory to a kind of paradise. When he goes, he warns, "don't dare sing Amazing Grace"--that "National / Anthem of Suffering." Instead, he suggests, "When I Fly Away, / Don't dare hold no vigil . . . Just burn the whole / Town on down."
This collection will stand as one of Young's best--his voice shaping sorrow with music, wisdom, heartache, and wit.

Review Quotes

One of Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025
One of Library Journal's Most Anticipated Fall Books

"Kevin Young is a poet of exceptional depth and sensitivity. . . . Let yourself focus on every phrase." --Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"As Young writes, we live in a world in which 'the dead won't leave/us be.' Thankfully, there remains collective work to honor them. Night Watch continues one of the most vital currents in contemporary poetry, transforming history and its silences into lyric through the poet's eloquent invitation: 'O wounded soul, / speak.'" --The New York Times

"Young's compact, clever, pithy verses can be read for their melody and the feelings they evoke, and they can also be parsed for clues to deep meaning." --The Ink

"As with his other writing on historical figures, Young plumbs some of the most shameful parts of our nation's history and society's violences and holds them up to the light. . . . Yet, above all, Night Watch is a book defined by grief and the existential trembling before the precipice of mortality and how we bear witness to loss." --LitHub

"Impressionistic and potent. . . . Young's poems candidly and vividly trace the woven threads of loss and admiration, death and reemergence: "away from gravity/ & the cherry trees/ blooming early// before I was even ready / to believe again/ in beauty." This elegant volume deepens the body of work by a significant American poet." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"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 (starred review)

About the Author

KEVIN YOUNG is the author of sixteen books of poetry and prose, including his most recent, Night Watch. He is the poetry editor of The New Yorker, where he hosts the Poetry Podcast, and the editor of eleven volumes, including A Century of Poetry in the New Yorker, 1925-2025 and the acclaimed anthology African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song. He currently serves as the Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.