Graduate Wins Poetry Award

Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory Seamus Heaney awarded the Harvard Review prize on Friday to Heather McHugh '69 for her book of poetry, Hinge & Sign.

The Harvard Review prize is given annually to a book of poetry, fiction or literary non-fiction that has been discussed in Harvard Review.

Speaking on behalf of the selection panel, Heaney said: "Heather McHugh is one of poetry's artful dodgers, impatient with adequacy, as reckless as she is intelligent.

There is a glancing, dancing speed to her poems which are never self-satisfied laps of honor but flatout sprints against her own lyric clock. Her gift is a sort of language-cat set loose among the language pigeons."

McHugh is a professor of English at the University of Washington, Seattle, and is the author of five books of poetry and one book of essays.

The prize consists of $1,000 and a reading at the Poetry Room in Lamont Library, followed by a reception.

Also on Friday, K.E. Duffin '76 was awarded the Harvard Review prize for excellence in reviewing.

Prudence Stiener, Associate Editor of the Review, announced the award:

"Duffin makes 'difficult' poets more accessible without oversimplifying, drawing on her wealth of knowledge yet never pulling away from the book," Stiener said. "Her writing displays a discursive suppleness and a metaphorical resource almost equal to the poet's own gifts, offering sure, clear articulation of the right way to approach a daunting new book."

Duffin's prize consists of a $500 and a reading or lecture at the Poetry Room, to be followed by a reception.