Young Dawkins – also known as DorkyDad – holds a MALS in Creative Writing from Dartmouth College, and has twice participated in the Frost Place Summer Festival of Poetry. He has been published in several US literary journals, including Currents and Concrete Wolf. In 2001 he won the Seacoast Writers Association Poetry Prize, and his poem The Lilac Thief was included in the 2008 Poets’ Guide to New Hampshire.

Young’s first poetry collection, also called The Lilac Thief, was published in 2009 by New Hampshire based Sargent Press. In 2010 Garrison Keillor selected a poem from this collection – Letter to My Unborn Child – for inclusion in the Writer’s Almanac on NPR.

His second full length collection Slow Walk Home was published in 2021 by Red Squirrel Press in Scotland. The collection is available for purchase from the Red Squirrel Press website.

Young was a central figure in the New Hampshire beat revival movement, where he helped found the Jazzmouth Poetry Festival, before moving to Scotland and becoming a regular on the Scottish Performance Poetry scene. He was the 2011 Scottish Slam Poetry Champion, and the 2012 runner up. In August 2011 he performed a solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe, and he hosted the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Poetry Slam in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

In May 2011, Young went to Paris to represent Scotland in the Poetry Slam World Cup. He blogged about it here: Day 1: Bon Voyage, DorkyDad!, Day 2: Lots of Merlot and a man from Glasgow, Day 3: The Knock Out Round, Day 5: Letter From Paris, Day 6: Last Post from Paris.

Since moving to Tasmania in 2013, Young has regularly performed at the Silver Words spoken word night. He has also performed with highly acclaimed jazz musicians Andrew Legg and Nick Haywood at venues including Lark Cellar Door, TMAG and the Tasmanian College of the Arts.

Young was the 2016 Chair of the Tasmanian Writers Centre, an invited poet at the 2016 Tasmanian Poetry Festival, and a performer and workshop leader at the 2019 Nayri Niara Good Spirit Festival on Bruny Island.

He has won the Huon Valley Storytellers Cup twice, in 2017 and 2019, and also hosted the inaugural children’s storytelling event at the 2019 Huon Valley Midwinter Festival.

Young’s poetry was selected for publication in Griffith Review 63: Writing the Country, Griffith Review 64: The New Disruptors, and Griffith Review 68: Getting On.

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Some of Young’s press coverage is here: The New Current, 4* Review in Three Weeks, 4* Reviews in Ed Fringe Review, Guardian Edinburgh, Edinburgh Reporter, The Skinny.

Some of his performances are here: Letter to My Unborn Child (video), My Wishes (audio, with band) and The Necessary Other (audio, with band).

Listen to him interviewed at the Scottish Poetry Library here, and read his What I’m Reading Now piece for the Australian literary journal Meanjin here.

Become a fan of Young Dawkins and keep up to date with his performances and publications by visiting his Facebook page.

You can also visit Young’s professional website – which details his consulting services relating to strategy, philanthropy and communication.