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Tony Hoagland's collection of
home-- collections of poems

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include Donkey Gospel, which
received the James Laughlin

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award in 1998, Sweet Ruin chosen
by Donald Justice for the 1992

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Brittingham prize in poetry,
and What Narcissism Means To Me,

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published by Graywolf
Press last year.

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He's been the
recipient of two grants

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from the National
Endowment for the Arts

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and a fellowship to the
prestigious Provincetown Fine

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Arts Work Center.

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He currently teaches
in the MFA program

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at Warren Wilson College and
in the graduate writing program

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at the University of Houston.

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So many poets use poems to take
a reader outside of reality,

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but Tony Hoagland's poems seem
to shove the reader face-first

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back into reality, and
often into a place--

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into a piece of humanity the
reader may have overlooked.

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In other words, nothing is ever
safe from scrutiny in a Tony

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Hoagland poem, especially
his own experiences

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with results that are often
as surprising and eye-opening,

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painful and funny
as they are true.

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Further, the observations
made by and within his poems

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expose the coexisting
dualities present in our lives,

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exploring moments at once
inspired and shameful,

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brilliant and dim,
or happy and sad.

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For this reason, a reader is
always kept on his or her toes,

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both as a reader
and as a person.

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Please give a warm welcome
back to Tony Hoagland.

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[APPLAUSE]