Yale Younger Series: Carl Phillips and Eduardo C. Corral (2012)

For the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series 2012, Carl Phillips and Eduardo C. Corral read from their works on September 17, 2012 in the Folger's Elizabethan Theatre. In April 2010, Carl Phillips was named as the new judge of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, replacing Louise Glück. Phillips chose Eduardo C. Corral’s Slow Lightning as the 2011 competition winner. This reading was co-sponsored by Letras Latinas with introductions from Letras, Franciso Aragón, and Carl Phillips. Aragón also moderated the conversation. A reception and book signing followed.

The Yale Series of Younger Poets

This series champions the most promising new American poets. Awarded since 1919, past winners include Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, William Meredith, W.S. Merwin, John Ashbery, John Hollander, James Tate, and Carolyn Forché.

Eduardo C. Corral

Eduardo C. Corral’s work has a beautiful intoxicating danger to it and a resistance to categorization. He is the 2011 recipient of the Yale Series of Younger Poets award and the first Latino poet to win the competition. Corral’s poems have appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, New England Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry. He has received a Discovery/The Nation award and the 2011 Whiting Writers Award.

Carl Phillips

Carl Phillips’s work ruminates on mortal themes with lyrical grace and precision. He is the award-winning author of twelve books of poetry, including Double Shadow, which was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award for poetry and won the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

Reviews and Excerpts

"One of the more surprising possibilities offered in these poems is joy." — Yale Younger Series judge and poet Carl Phillips on Corral’s Slow Lightning

from "Self-Portrait with Tumbling and Lasso"

My soul is

       whirling

above my head like a lasso.

       My right hand

a pistol. My left

       automatic. I'm knocking

on every door.

       I'm coming on strong . . .