“Hoagland’s verse is consistently, and crucially, bloodied by a sense of menace and by straight talk.” —The New York Times My heroes are the ones who don’t say much. They don’t hug people they just met. They don’t play louder when confused. They use plain language even when they listen. Wisdom doesn’t come to every Californian. Chances are I too will die with difficulty in the dark. If you want to see a lost civilizaton, why not look in the mirror? If you want to talk about love, why not begin with those marigolds you forgot to water? —from “Real Estate” Tony Hoagland’s poems interrogate human nature and contemporary culture with an intimate and wild urgency, located somewhere between outrage, stand-up comedy, and grief. His new poems are no less observant of the human and the worldly, no less skeptical, and no less amusing, but they have drifted toward the greater depths of open emotion. Over six collections, Hoagland’s poetry has gotten bigger, more tender, and more encompassing. The poems in Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God turn his clear-eyed vision toward the hidden spaces—and spaciousness—in the human predicament.

“Hoagland’s verse is consistently, and crucially, bloodied by a sense of menace and by straight talk.” —The New York Times My heroes are the ones who don’t say much. They don’t hug people they just met. They don’t play louder when confused. They use plain language even when they listen. Wisdom doesn’t come to every Californian. Chances are I too will die with difficulty in the dark. If you want to see a lost civilizaton, why not look in the mirror? If you want to talk about love, why not begin with those marigolds you forgot to water? —from “Real Estate” Tony Hoagland’s poems interrogate human nature and contemporary culture with an intimate and wild urgency, located somewhere between outrage, stand-up comedy, and grief. His new poems are no less observant of the human and the worldly, no less skeptical, and no less amusing, but they have drifted toward the greater depths of open emotion. Over six collections, Hoagland’s poetry has gotten bigger, more tender, and more encompassing. The poems in Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God turn his clear-eyed vision toward the hidden spaces—and spaciousness—in the human predicament.

Tony Hoagland's zany poems poke and provoke at the same time as they entertain and delight.

An award-winning poet, teacher, and “champion of poetry” (New York Times) demystifies the elusive element of voice. In this accessible and distilled craft guide, acclaimed poet Tony Hoagland approaches poetry through the frame of poetic voice, that mysterious connective element that binds the speaker and reader together. A poem strong in the dimension of voice is an animate thing of shifting balances, tones, and temperatures, by turns confiding, vulgar, bossy, or cunning—but above all, alive. The twelve short chapters of The Art of Voice explore ways to create a distinctive poetic voice, including vernacular, authoritative statement, material imagination, speech register, tone-shifting, and using secondary voices as an enriching source of texture in the poem. A comprehensive appendix contains thirty stimulating models and exercises that will help poets cultivate their craft. Mining his personal experience as a poet and analyzing a wide range of examples from Catullus to Marie Howe, Hoagland provides a lively introduction to contemporary poetry and an invaluable guide for any practicing writer.

Hoagland's generous effervescence and a jujitsu cleverness sparkle line after line, confronting negotiation and compromise, gender and culture, sex and rock music, sons and lovers, truth and beauty, and so forth.

The eagerly awaited, brilliant, and engaging new poems by Tony Hoagland, author of What Narcissism Means to Me The parade for the slain police officer goes past the bakery and the smell of fresh bread makes the mourners salivate against their will. —from "Note to Reality" Are we corrupt or innocent, fragmented or whole? Are responsibility and freedom irreconcilable? Do we value memory or succumb to our forgetfulness? Application for Release from the Dream, Tony Hoagland's fifth collection of poems, pursues these questions with the hobnailed abandon of one who needs to know how a citizen of twenty-first-century America can stay human. With whiplash nerve and tender curiosity, Hoagland both surveys the damage and finds the wonder that makes living worthwhile. Mirthful, fearless, and precise, these poems are full of judgment and mercy.