Dean Young Still Needs Your Help

As we've reported here and here, Dean Young was having serious heart trouble, and thankfully got a much needed transplant. While this is wonderful news, the procedure still takes its toll financially, and will continue to do so for the rest of Dean's life. Luckily, many folks are stepping up to help out through donations and fundraisers. A brief article at Publishers Weekly highlights one recent event in the Bay Area:

A veritable who’s who from the poetry world gathered last week on the University of California Berkeley campus for the latest in a series of fundraisers aimed to raise money for medical costs for Dean Young, author of the numerous collections, including Elegy (a Pulitzer finalist), Skid and, the just released, Fall Higher from Copper Canyon Press.

While it might be said that a poet’s heart beats a little differently than the average person, Young, 57, underwent emergency heart surgery in December and a transplant operation in April. While Young’s insurance through the University of Texas at Austin covered the surgery, poet and novelist Joseph Di Prisco, chair of the Dean Young fundraising efforts, explained that Young’s out-of-pocket expenses will be about $50,000 a year. Young was born with a heart defect.

“The goal is to keep him alive and out of bankruptcy for as long as he lives, which we hope is a long, long time,” said Di Prisco.

The full article, with links to video of this and another event, can be found here.

Also listed at the end of the article is a website that allows donations, which can be found here.