The University’s 2013-2014 Poet-In-Residence Dean Young gave a poetry reading  on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 7 p.m. in the Stadler Center for Poetry in Bucknell Hall. A reception and book-signing followed the event.

Irreverence was a major theme that resonated throughout the poems Young read at the event. Young explained how the reader experiences the comic nature and the tragedy simultaneously.

Young has authored over 10 books. Despite being the University’s Poet-in-Residence, his collection is not limited to poetry. His book “The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction” is about poetics.

“He opened my mind more to inclusion, especially with images that don’t seem to pair up,” an anonymous student said.

Born in Columbia, Pa., Young graduated with an MFA from Indiana University. He is one of the most prominent contemporary poets, and has achieved several accomplishments including the Colorado Prize of Poetry for his collection of poetry “Strike Anywhere,” as well as being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.

“I think our society would be more healthy if everybody wrote a poem. I think writing poems is a noble act and it connects us to things that are far outside our usual material value that we get mired in,” Young said.

Young will participate in a public conversation with Rob Casper, the Head of the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress, at noon on Feb. 4 in the Walls Lounge in the Elaine Langone Center.