David Dalton Yezzi (born 1966) is an American poet, editor, actor,[1] and professor. He currently teaches poetry in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.
Yezzi was Director of the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York City from 2001 to 2005 and has worked as executive editor and, then, poetry editor of The New Criterion, associate editor of Parnassus: Poetry in Review, and was on the staff of The New York Observer.[6] He is a professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and a former editor of The Hopkins Review.
Yezzi was a co-founder of the San Francisco theater company, Thick Description, and has performed in works by Shakespeare, Shaw, Brecht, Goethe, Williams, and others in the United States and Europe.[6] In March 2010, Verse Theater Manhattan presented Yezzi's evening of verse monologues, Dirty Dan & Other Travesties, at the Bowery Poetry Club, with Yezzi performing "Tomorrow & Tomorrow." In October 2021, he performed the title role in The Baltimore Shakespeare Factory's production of King Lear.[7]
In 1998, he was awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University (1998–2000).[6]
Yezzi's poem "The Call" was included in The Best American Poetry 2006 and "Minding Rites" appeared in The Best American Poetry 2012.
In December 2008, Azores was chosen as a Slate magazine "Best Book of 2008." In 2015, Birds of the Air was a finalist for the Poets' Prize.
Bibliographyedit
Non-fictionedit
Late Romance: Anthony Hecht--A Poet's Life (St. Martin's Press, 2023), 464 pages, ISBN 978-1250016584
Poetryedit
More Things in Heaven (Measure Press, 2022), 156 pages, ISBN 978-1939574336
Black Sea (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2018), poetry, 74 pages, ISBN 978-0887486357
Birds of the Air (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2013), poetry, 90 pages, ISBN 978-0887485718
Azores (Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 2008), poetry, 56 pages, ISBN 978-0-8040-1113-6
The Hidden Model (TriQuarterly/Northwestern University Press, 2003), poetry, 96 pages, ISBN 978-0810151451
Chapbooksedit
Two Ranges [Vertical] by Ernest Hilbert and David Yezzi (Nemean Lion Press, 2013), hand-sewn, signed-limited concertina book
Tomorrow & Tomorrow, with an afterword by Denis Donoghue (Exot Books, 2012), ISBN 978-0-9844249-7-9
Such Root Satisfaction, 3 X 5 [Three by David Yezzi, Five by Ernest Hilbert] (Nemean Lion Press, 2010)
A Fletching of Hackles: Fresh Verse by Ernest Hilbert and David Yezzi (Nemean Lion Press, 2009)
Sad Is Eros (Aralia Press, 2003)
Anthologies (edited)edit
The Swallow Anthology of New American Poets (Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 2009), poetry, 376 pages, ISBN 978-0-8040-1121-1
List of poems
Title
Year
First published
Reprinted/collected
Sugar on snow
2019
Yezzi, David (July 2019). "Sugar on snow". The Atlantic. 324 (1): 38.
Playsedit
Schnauzer: A Play In One Act (EXOT Books, 2019), Play-In-Verse, 82 pages, ISBN 978-0989898447
Librettiedit
His libretto for a new chamber opera by composer David Conte, Firebird Motel, premiered in 2003 and was released on CD by Arsis.[6]
Referencesedit
^Interview (Unterberg Poetry Center) with Ernest Hibert 'Fiction' The Cortland Review issue 32 June 2006
^review.com/issue/32/yezzi_i.html[permanent dead link] An Interview with David Yezzi by Ernest Hilbert, The Cortland Review, Issue 32, June 2006, accessed February 1, 2007
^"Frequency North Returns with Kaya Oakes and David Yezzi". 12 March 2013.
^Nester, Daniel (July 22, 2021). "Poetry on Vinyl: Some Haystacks Don't Even Have Any Needle".
^Mair, Elizabeth Floyd (August 23, 2013). "Making a life's work from words". Times Union.
^ abcdef[1] Google Cache of biographical sketch page of David Yezzi at 92nd Street Y Web site, accessed February 1, 2007