Tony Hoagland's poems are political in all the correct ways. Provocative and witty, visceral and high-minded, they name the elephant in the room with such dialectic precision the very room seems to disappear. Publishers Weekly called him "one of the smarter, and funnier, poets of his generation." His poems are like songs with an irresistible, driving thematic rhythm over which one or more assertions syncopate their way towards a thrilling truth.
Winner of the James Laughlin Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Award, he has written 5 books of poetry and 2 collections of essays. His poems cover the changing of America, what it means to be a man, consumer culture, race, and the search for the sacred. In his poem, "At the Galleria Shopping Mall," he concludes,
Get over it, they said
at the school of Broken Hearts
but I couldn't and I didn't and I don't
believe in the clean break;
I believe in the compound fracture
served with a sauce of dirty regret,
I believe in saying it all
and taking it all back
Hoagland says it all and his words are demanding, beautiful and memorable. As Dwight Garner said in The New York Times, "few poets deliver more pure pleasure."
Tony Hoagland was our Spring 2017 featured artist and we have sold out of our seasonal supply of his book, but you can purchase direct from his publisher. For more info, click here.
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