Echoes of Jake Adam York: The Life and Works of an Auburn Poet

I had never heard of the poet Jake Adam York prior to this assignment, nor had I ever researched and written so extensively about someone whose impact was still as strong as the day he died, perhaps even more so.

With a window of less than three months, I understood I could never fully comprehend York’s life and work completely enough on my own, so I turned to the people who could: his friends, his family, his ex-girlfriends, his widow, his colleagues now scattered across the country and even an acquaintance living in Prague.

I conducted more than 20 interviews — the most ever in my career so far — and what I gathered each time was that, while seeming impenetrably deep and complex on the surface, York was still human. He still listened to Radiohead; he had an obsession with barbecue; he had a perceptible sense of guilt at being a white southerner confronted with the sins of his region’s forefathers. The self-declared fifth-generation Alabamian understood the criticism that would be leveled against him for his heritage, but rather than shirk from it or limit his interaction with the subject of Civil Rights injustices, he met it head-on and never missed an opportunity to right a wrong if he could.

What I gained most from working on this story — other than a deep, abiding respect for Jake Adam York and his work — is the knowledge that I gained from the people who knew him best.