Stones

A Library Journal top ten poetry title of 2021
A Financial Times best poetry book of 2021
One of Washington Post critic Ron Charles’s twelve favorite poetry collections of 2021
A New York Times “Editor’s Choice” selection
One of TIME’s “34 most anticipated books to read this fall”
One of Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “10 must-read Southern books this fall”
One of Thrillist’s “24 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Fall”

“An exceptionally beautiful collection, full of retrospection, longing, and grief ambered into verse.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“In Stones, Young mines his familial history and calls out moments of sorrow and joy, from musings on his grandmother Mama Annie to poems that consider the generations of people that have lived in the American South. The result is a blistering look at love, loss and everything in between.” —TIME

“Stones combines brevity and sharp line breaks. . . . A book of language at its limits.” —The Guardian

“Joy and sorrow are inseparable in this volume of reminiscence rooted in the American South. . . . [The] poet crafts exquisite portraits of the people he loves and the places he calls home.”
—Oprah Quarterly

“Young transforms memories, grief into beauty . . . We are lucky he allows us to travel with him into his past and glance over his shoulder.” —Jeremy Redmon, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Distilled meditations on the deep resonance of family and home . . . Evocations of church services, rain, sun, and the music of the dark entwine nature and human longing . . . For Young, words are stones; poems are cairns.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist

“With superbly crafted poems that engage the past and the present, Young delivers another ambitious collection across seven lyrically powerful sections. . . . These elegant, measured poems offer insight into the troubled moment through an exhumation of the past, while giving the reader plenty of depth and beauty to carry into the future.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)