Keynote
The new poetry collection by Tony Hoagland, the award-winning author of What Narcissism Means to Me and Donkey Gospel
Book Title
Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty
Subtitle
Poems
Cover Image
- “Few [poets] deliver more pure pleasure. [Hoagland’s] erudite comic poems are backloaded with heartache and longing, and they function, emotionally, like improvised explosive devices: the pain comes at you from the cruelest angles, on the sunniest of days. . . . Listen up, cats: This plain, unincorporated, free-range American poet is one you’ll want to know about.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Body
In documents elsewhere I have already recorded my complaints in some painstaking detail. Now, because all things near water are joyful, there might be time to catch up on praise. —from "Barton Springs" In I Have News for You, poet Tony Hoagland reports on an America that is familiar in its love for itself and disarming in its possibilities yet for grace. With Hoagland's unmistakable humor and biting social commentary, these poems are exhilarating for their fierce moral curiosity and for their unsparing ability to tell the truth--as perilous, humiliating, and forgiving as it is.
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About the Author
Credit: Elizabeth Jacobson
Praise
- “Hoagland’s poems…are so fully alive to the rich, dark depths of their grumpiness that they constantly threaten, against their author’s gimlet-eyed better judgment, to become beautiful.”—Joel Brouwer, The New York Times Book Review
- “And just like that—because ‘you want[ed] to talk about America,’ after all—a cement truck joins the playground swing, a corn-chip factory, Britney Spears, the DC sniper, jazz music, and an amazing assortment of other ingredients, not the least of which is Jimmy’s Wok and Roll American-Chinese Gourmet Emporium, all of which divine and define the brilliant and delightful landscape of Hoagland’s world. . . . [He] takes great risks in his unsettling juxtaposition of diction and his curiously diverse subject matter, and he is as ready to express confusion, outrage, and anger as he is to display outlandish humor.”—Library Journal, starred review
- “Hoagland has much in common with the popular Billy Collins—a sharp, if deadpan, wit; accessible, almost prosey lines; a penchant for self-consciously drawing the reader’s attention to the artifice of the poem—but with a more musically attuned ear and a darker outlook. . . . At his best, Hoagland is capable of showing us how truly marvelous ‘our marvelous punishment’ can be.”—Publishers Weekly
- “His wisest, best book yet.”—Kansas City Star
