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October 4, 2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Poet Heather McHugh to Read at Smith

NORTHAMPTON, Mass.-The Poetry Center at Smith College will present poet Heather McHugh at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23, in Wright Hall Auditorium.


McHugh is the author of six books of poetry, a book of essays and translations from several languages. Called a "postmodern metaphysician" by Booklist, McHugh is widely praised for her attention to, and fascination with, language itself. Her poems, which have won many awards, often revolve around complicated wordplay and etymological games. Former U. S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass described her as "a poet for whom wit is a form of spiritual survival." The Village Voice Literary Supplement declared that McHugh's poems "are honest and essential as a blood count."


Born in California and raised in Virginia, McHugh entered Harvard at the age
of 16 and later did graduate work at the University of Denver. Her first book of poems, "Dangers," was published in 1977. Subsequent volumes include "To the Quick," "Hinge & Sign," "The Father of the Predicaments" and "Broken English: Poetry and Partiality," a collection of essays. Her translation work includes Euripides' "Cyclops" and "Glottal Stop: Poems of Paul Celan" (with her husband, Nikolai Popov).


McHugh has taught at many universities and writing programs, including the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is on the faculty of the Warren Wilson College M.F.A. program and is Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence and Professor of English at the University of Washington in Seattle.


McHugh's Oct. 23 reading, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a bookselling and signing. For more information, call Cindy Furtek at (413) 585-4891 or Ellen Doré Watson at (413) 585-3368, or visit the Poetry Center Web site at https://www.smith.edu/poetrycenter.


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