Dean Young Poetry Benefit with Robert Hass and Friends

Poet Dean Young's friends, including Cal's Robert Hass and Zyzzyva editor Oscar Villaron, team up to help defray the massive bills from Young's April heart transplant. Thursday's 7 p.m. event in 315 Wheeler Hall features readings by a Who's Who of American poetry, including W.S. Di Piero, Troy Jollimore and Copper Canyon Press editor Michael Wiegers. The event itself is free, but there will be donation stations around the room, and signed copies of Young's new book, Falling Higher, will be available, as well as specially commissioned broadsides of his poems. A reception with wine and snacks will follow. Young, 56, has published 10 books of poetry and has lived 10 years with congestive heart failure. He's a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford and taught poetry at the University of Texas. Check out NPR's coverage of Young's life and work, complete with audio links of his reading.