 | The book cover for Richard Siken's poetry collection "Crush." |
Richard Siken, a New York City-born poet who now lives in Tucson, Arizona, has been chosen the winner of the recent Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, the longest-running poetry prize in America.
The competition is open to any American under age 40 who has not yet published a book of poetry.
Siken's poetry collection, "Crush," was chosen by competition judge and past U.S. poet laureate Louise Glück. The Yale University Press is celebrating the selection by publishing Siken's collection in book form; it will be released on April 19.
In her foreword to "Crush," Glück writes of the new Yale Younger Poet, "If panic is his ground note, Siken's obsessive focus is a tyrant, the body. His title, 'Crush,' suggests as much. In the dictionary, among the word's many meanings, 'to press between opposing bodies so as to break or injure; to oppress; to break, pound or grind.' Or, as a noun, 'extreme pressure.' Out of this cauldron of destruction, its informal meaning: infatuation, the sweet fixation of girl on boy. In Siken, boy on boy. ... The risk of obsessive material is that it may get boring, repetitious, predictable, shrill. And the triumph of 'Crush' is that it writes and blazes while at the same time holding the reader utterly: 'sustaining interest' seems far too mild a term for this effect. What holds is sheer art, despite the apparent abandon."
Siken earned his M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Arizona. He is founder of the literary magazine spork, and his poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, Conjunctions, Indiana Review and Chelsea. "Crush" was a finalist in 1993 for the Academy of American Poets' Walt Whitman Award. Siken is also the recipient of an Arizona Commission on the Arts grant and the Pushcart Prize, and he is the 2005 recipient of a Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Yale University Press publishes the winning manuscript by the Yale Younger Poet in the year following its selection for the prestigious prize. Since its inception in 1919, the Yale Series of Younger Poets has published first collections of works by such poets as Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, W.H. Auden, Stanley Kunitz, James
Below is an excerpt from Siken's poem "Saying Your Name," from "Crush":
Names called out across the water,
©Yale University Press
T H I S
Richard Siken is selected
as new Yale Younger Poet
Merrill and James Dickey.
Names I called you behind your back,
sour and delicious, secret and unrepeatable,
the names of flowers that open only once,
shouted from balconies, shouted from rooftops,
or muffled by pillows, or whispered in sleep,
or caught in my throat like a lump of meat.
I try, I do. I try and try. A happy ending?
Sure enough -- hello darling, welcome home.
I'll call you darling, hold you tight. We are
not traitors but the lights go out. It's dark.
Sweetheart, is that you? There are no tears,
no pictures of him squarely. A seaside framed
in glass, and boats, those little boats with
sails aflutter, shining lights upon the water,
lights that splinter when they hit the pier.
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Center renamed in honor of its founder
Study: Benefits of red wine due to more than just alcohol
STDs high even in teens who take virginity pledges
Health care providers can learn valuable lessons from TB . . .
Three physicists named to endowed postsMichel Devoret: Beinecke chair in applied physics
Steven Girvin: Higgins professorship in physics
A. Douglas Stone: Morse chair in applied physics
Economist appointed to Beinecke chair
SOM hosts government leaders from Kazakhstan
Yale-developed brace heading for market
New York Times columnist to give next Poynter Fellowship Lecture
International group of scholars to probe 'Why Literature Matters'
Conference will explore the global flow of information
Discussion will examine legal rights of victims of genocide, torture
Divinity School event to tackle the 'Sunday-Monday disconnect'
Software being developed by the Peabody's BioGeomancer project . . .
Study: High-risk treatments best for some breast cancer patients
Richard Siken is selected as new Yale Younger Poet
With short training program, ER workers can intervene with . . .
Yale Books in Brief
Jeffrey Kenney appointed chair of astronomy department
Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News
Bulletin Board|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines
Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs|News Releases|
E-Mail Us|Yale Home