Jake Adam York
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Jake Adam York (August 10, 1972December 16, 2012) was an American
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
. He published three books of poetry before his death: ''Murder Ballads'', which won the 2005 Elixir Prize in Poetry; ''A Murmuration of Starlings'', which won the 2008 Colorado Book Award in Poetry; and ''Persons Unknown,'' an editor's selection in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry. A fourth book, ''Abide'', was released posthumously, in 2014. That same year he was also named a posthumous recipient of the
Witter Bynner Fellowship Witter Bynner Fellowships are administered by the Library of Congress and sponsored by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, an organization that provides grant support for poetry programs through nonprofit organizations. Fellows are chosen by ...
by the U.S. Poet Laureate.


Life

York was born in
West Palm Beach West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...
, Florida, in 1972 to David and Linda York, who worked respectively as a steelworker and history teacher.Jake Adam York Interviews Natasha Trethewey
Southern Spaces, Emory University, accessed December 17, 2012.
Shortly after York's birth, his parents moved with him back to
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
, where five generations of their families had lived.DAVID BIESPIEL, "POETRY WIRE: REMEMBERING JAKE ADAM YORK, 1972-2012"
''The Rumpus'', 17 December 2012. Accessed December 17, 2012.
York grew up with his brother Joe in
Gadsden, Alabama Gadsden is the county seat of Etowah County in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is located on the Coosa River about northeast of Birmingham and southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is the primary city of the Gadsden Metropolitan Statist ...
, where the family lived in a rural house.Jake Adam York, Poet Who Chronicled Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 40
by Claire Martin, ''The Denver Post'', 18 December 2012.
York was a big fan of
rap music Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...
, including
LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip ho ...
and
Run DMC Run-DMC (also formatted Run-D.M.C., RUN DMC, or some combination thereof) was an American hip-hop group formed in Hollis, Queens, New York City in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jam Master Jay, Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as ...
, and covered their joint bedroom in posters of his favorite rappers. York graduated from Southside High School in Gadsden in 1990. That year he started at
Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...
. Initially an
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
student, he switched majors to English after attending a poetry reading with R. T. Smith, who was the university's Alumni Writer in Residence at the time. York eventually earned a B.A. in English. He received his M.F.A. and Ph.D. in creative writing and English literature from
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
.


Career and editing

York worked as an associate professor at the
University of Colorado Denver The University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) is a Public university, public research university located in downtown Denver, Colorado. It is part of the University of Colorado system. Established in 1912 as an extension of the University of C ...
, where he was an editor for ''Copper Nickel'', a nationally recognized student literary journal which he had helped found. In the spring of 2011, York was the Richard B. Thomas Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at
Kenyon College Kenyon College ( ) is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1824 by Episcopal Bishop Philander Chase. It is the oldest private instituti ...
. During the 2011–2012 academic year, he was a visiting faculty scholar at
Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...
's James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference. In addition, York served as a founding editor for '' storySouth'' and as a contributing editor for ''Shenandoah'' magazine. He also founded the online journal ''Thicket'', which focused on Alabama literature. In 2005, when fiction writer
Brad Vice Brad Vice (born November 14, 1973) is an English language and composition professor at the University of West Bohemia. He grew up in Alabama. His short story collection, ''The Bear Bryant Funeral Train'', won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Shor ...
was accused of
plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...
in his
short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
collection ''The Bear Bryant Funeral Train'', York took the lead in defending the author. Vice was accused of plagiarizing part of one story from the 1934 book ''Stars Fell on Alabama'' by Carl Carmer. York noted that Vice had allowed the short story and the similar section from Carmer's original book to be published side by side in the literary journal ''Thicket''. To York, Vice thus "implicitly acknowledges the relationship (and) allows the evidence to be made public". York added that doing this allowed the readers to enter the "intertextual space in which (Vice) has worked", and Vice was using
allusion Allusion, or alluding, is a figure of speech that makes a reference to someone or something by name (a person, object, location, etc.) without explaining how it relates to the given context, so that the audience must realize the connection in the ...
in his story, not
plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...
. York said that, according to his own analysis, Vice did not violate copyright law. Vice's collection was republished two years later. York wrote one of the introductions to this new edition of ''The Bear Bryant Funeral Train''.


Poetry

York wrote what has been called "poetry of witness," in particular "to elegize and memorialize the martyrs of the Civil Rights movement. His poetry appeared in journals and magazines including ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...
,Abide
by Jake Adam York, ''The New York Times Magazine'', Feb. 22, 2015, Page 70.
The New Orleans Review'', ''The Oxford American'', ''Poetry Daily'', ''Quarterly West'', and ''The Southern Review''. York's first book of poems, ''Murder Ballads'', won the 2005 Elixir Prize in Poetry. According to one reviewer, "Context matters, but good poetry is not bound by it. Jake Adam York's ''Murder Ballads'' — a collection of 35 poems in four parts, published by Elixir Press — is a book where context matters. But the finely crafted poems—what Shenandoah editor R.T. Smith rightly calls York's "demanding poetic"—are not bound by that context". His sophomore book, ''A Murmuration of Starlings'', won the 2008 Colorado Book Award in Poetry and was published through the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry. His third book, ''Persons Unknown'', was published in 2010 as an editor's selection in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry by Southern Illinois University Press. Both books chronicled and eulogized the martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement. In 2009, York was the
University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...
's Summer Poet in Residence. On February 14, 2010, York was awarded the Third Coast Poetry Prize. He had already received a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in poetry.Poet Jake Adam York, 40, has died
by Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times Jacket Copy website, December 17, 2012. Accessed December 17, 2012.
His fourth book, ''Abide'', was completed in 2012 shortly before his death and published by
Southern Illinois University Press Southern Illinois University Press or SIU Press, founded in 1956, is a university press located in Carbondale, Illinois, owned and operated by Southern Illinois University. The press publishes approximately 50 titles annually, among its more th ...
in 2014. ''Abide'' was named a finalist for the
National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry The National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, established in 1975, is an annual American literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English". Awards are presented ...
. In 2014 York was also posthumously named as the recipient of the
Witter Bynner Fellowship Witter Bynner Fellowships are administered by the Library of Congress and sponsored by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, an organization that provides grant support for poetry programs through nonprofit organizations. Fellows are chosen by ...
by the U.S. Poet Laureate.>Witter Bynner Fellowships
The Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress, LOC website, accessed March 16, 2014.
In honor of York's poetry and life, Copper Nickel and Milkweed Editions run the Jake Adam York Prize for a first or second poetry collection. The winning books are published by Milkweed Editions.


Reception

Natasha Trethewey Natasha Trethewey (born April 26, 1966) is an American poet who served as United States Poet Laureate from 2012 to 2014. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection ''Native Guard'', and is a former Poet Laureate of Missi ...
described ''A Murmuration of Starlings'' as
a fierce, beautiful, necessary book. Fearless in their reckoning, these poems resurrect contested histories and show us that the past—with its troubled beauty, its erasures, and its violence—weighs upon us all . . . a murmuration so that we don't forget, so that no one disappears into history.
According to Adam Palumbo in ''The Rumpus'',
York's study into the Civil Rights Movement is not meant to be an indictment of the American consciousness; rather, he strives to present the stories of these persons unknown so that his reader cannot help but reflect on this murderous chapter in American history. He never sinks into oblique facts, but he does not forget them, either. He never ignores the simple truth that he is writing poetry, and crafts a collection that is moving and substantial. ''Persons Unknown'' is a necessary addition to the oeuvre of civil rights literature and the conversation it (still) invokes.


Death

York died on December 16, 2012, from a
stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
.


Awards and honors

* 2014
National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Witter Bynner Fellowship Witter Bynner Fellowships are administered by the Library of Congress and sponsored by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, an organization that provides grant support for poetry programs through nonprofit organizations. Fellows are chosen by ...
* 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship * 2008 Colorado Book Award in Poetry


Selected publications

* ''Abide'' (Southern Illinois Press, 2014) * ''Persons Unknown'' (Southern Illinois Press, 2010) * ''A Murmuration of Starlings'' (Southern Illinois University Press, 2008) * ''Murder Ballads'' (Elixir Press, 2005) * ''The Architecture of Address: The Monument and Public Speech in American Poetry'' (Routledge, 2005)


References


External links

*
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Jake Adam York Papers, 1972-2012.
{{DEFAULTSORT:York, Jake Adam 1972 births Auburn University alumni Cornell University alumni University of Colorado Denver faculty 2012 deaths People from West Palm Beach, Florida People from Gadsden, Alabama Poets from Florida Poets from Alabama 21st-century American poets