University of Houston poetry professor Tony Hoagland has won the $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize, according to Poets & Writers Inc., a New York City-based nonprofit group for creative writers. If you’re a little short on money — who isn’t? — poets, you might aspire to enter this sort of big-prize contest.
The judges said of Hoagland’s work:
For all those who thought poetry is too inaccessible, too distant, too refined and tough to understand, try some Mary Oliver poems.
Her pure, clear poems are a delight; they show sharp attention to details of nature.
We see in some of her poems a kind of transcendental melding of the human with nature.
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“I saw the Aleph from every point and angle, and in the Aleph I saw the earth and in the earth the Aleph and in the Aleph the earth….”
– Jorges Luis Borges
I met the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges back in the ’70s during his visit to WVU. How odd and fortunate it was to be shaking hands with Borges in the Mountainlair ballroom! My poet friends and I had recently discovered what we considered to be his centerpiece — “Aleph” — and everybody knew he was amazing and internationally renowned.
Knopf’s Poem a Day starts today, the first day of National Poetry Month, and that’s no fooling. Click here to sign up.
The editors at Knopf engage our attention with many famous poets from their huge collection, and this year there will be audio clips.
“This year, we’ll also be featuring special podcasts, gorgeous printable broadsides, and signed books,” Jason Kincade of Knopf New Media says.
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