Poetry. "Mike Young's poetry is an absolute stunner. WE ARE ALL GOOD IF THEY TRY HARD ENOUGH streams one intricate, scenery chewing, note perfect, balletic, swervy, mind blowing composition after another. These may be nothing but great poems, but I can't think of a paragraph anywhere that can match them for style or cover their emotional distance"—Dennis Cooper.
Author City: NORTHAMPTON, MA USA
Mike Young is the author of WE ARE ALL GOOD IF THEY TRY HARD ENOUGH (Publishing Genius Press, 2010), Look! Look! Feathers (Word Riot Press, 2010), and the chapbook MC Oroville's Answering Machine (Transmission Press, 2009). He co-edits NOÖ Journal and Magic Helicopter Press. He lives in Northampton, MA.
Reviews and Other Links
author blog
Patrick Trotti at JMWW
Christopher Newgent @ Vouched
Casey Mensing @ The Lies and the Laughter
excerpt @ Glitterpony
excerpt @ No Tell Motel
excerpt @ Coconut
interview by bl pawelek @ Flatmancrooked
Erin McNellis @ uncomplicatedly
Brett Gallagher @ As You Recognize Your Transience
Gabe Durham's Best of 2010 @ BIG OTHER
The Believer Magazine Readers' Top Twenty Favorite Poetry Books Published in 2010
“WE ARE ALL GOOD IF THEY TRY HARD ENOUGH reveals the gestures & tics of common experience as portals to the sublime, the theoretical & the silly. These poems jumpcut like French New Wave & confide like a sinner, always trembling with energy, always trying to contain the tiltawhirl glamour of life & exploding.”
—Mathias Svalina
“We are all good says the book, says the poet. The poet Mike Young is not afraid of marionberries or MySpace, Nyquil, or Dunkin’ Donuts or KFC, or a crucifix on wheels, or Gillis Beukel or Martha Stewart or Minnie Mouse, or Cheetos or Craigslist, or breast milk or milk duds or Cool Whip, or NASCAR or MMORPGs, or a theory of radical alterity or The Decemberists or Barry Bonds, or Arkansas or Crescent City, California. Oh my god, he is not afraid of Chuckie Cheese! This is a reckless, fearless poet we’re meeting, and I think we should all wish him safe travels. He reminds me of Marcel Proust. He is that greedy and that good.”
—Dara Wier