Tom Yuill’s first book of poetry, “Medicine Show,” is published by the University of Chicago Press. Robert Pinsky writes it “lives up to both halves of its title: a vivid, exhilarating imagination show that is also strong medicine. Yuill examines the grief and desperation underlying postures and ruses of self-deception. The book’s brilliant adaptations of Hikmet and Villon cast a raking, skeptical light on Texas versions of the quasi-Byronic hero. Yuill’s sardonic, clear-eyed comedy is humane and antic: a born talker on a serious mission.” He has taught poetry at Boston University, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, among others. This year he taught American Literature at Old Dominion University in Virginia.