Book Title

What Narcissism Means to Me

Subtitle

Poems

Author 1

Tony Hoagland

A Finalist for the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award

Body

How did I come to believe in a government called Tony Hoagland?
With an economy based on flattery and self-protection?
and a sewage system of selective forgetting?
and an extensive history of broken promises?
—from "Argentina"

In What Narcissism Means to Me, award-winning poet Tony Hoagland levels his particular brand of acute irony not only on the personal life, but also on some provinces of American culture. In playful narratives, lyrical outbursts, and overheard conversations, Hoagland cruises the milieu, exploring the spiritual vacancies of American satisfaction. With humor, rich tonal complexity, and aggressive moral intelligence, these poems bring pity to our folly and celebrate our resilience.

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List Price

$17.00

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ISBN

ISBN

978-1-55597-386-5

Format

Format

Paperback

Publication Date

Publication Date

11/1/03

Subject

Subject

Poetry

Pages

Pages

Trim Size

Trim Size

6 x 9

Keynote

"Tony Hoagland has written a book of poems from deep inside the American empire—hilarious, searing poems that break your heart so fast you hardly notice you're standing knee deep in a pool of implications." —Marie Howe

About the Author

Credit: Elizabeth Jacobson

Tony Hoagland was the author of seven collections of poetry, including Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God, What Narcissism Means to Me, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Donkey Gospel, winner of the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. He was also the author of two collections of essays, Twenty Poems That Could Save America and Other Essays and Real Sofistikashun: Essays on Poetry and Craft. He received the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers, the Mark Twain Award from the Poetry Foundation, and the O. B. Hardison, Jr. Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library. He taught for many years at the University of Houston. Hoagland died in October 2018.

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Praise

“Tony Hoagland’s disarming poetry collection What Narcissism Means to Me has the appeal of a mean-but-funny friend, a smart aleck you can’t dismiss, he’s so entertaining and (most of the time) so spot on in his insights. Hoagland’s central subject is the self, specifically, a prickly, grandiose American masculine poetic self, or to be more specific still, what the author ruefully labels in one poem ‘a government called Tony Hoagland.’”—The New York Times Book Review
“Tony Hoagland has a smart and sassy way of thinking about America in his work. He is one of the few poets self-consciously trying to come to terms with—to find a way to think about—the apparent omnipotence and inescapability of the mass culture that surrounds us like a sea. We are endlessly swimming through its waters. His third book, with is comic, self-mocking and very American title, What Narcissism Means to Me, heads off into uncharted territory. It is his best collection yet.”—Edward Hirsch, The Washington Post Book World
“A Late Night Show of poetry hosted by a high priest of irony (check out the title), that is Tony Hoagland’s new book. These poems are very funny, but they are also sad, sharp-edged and ambitious. They wish to be more than just amusing cautionary tales.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Tony Hoagland turns heartache into poetry so beautiful it makes you crave melancholy.”—Star Tribune (Minneapolis)