The Triggering Town
Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing
24 September 2010
Description
“I don’t know why we do it. We must be crazy./Welcome, fellow poet.”—Richard Hugo
Richard Hugo, whom Carolyn Kizer called “one of the most passionate, energetic and honest poets living,” was that rare phenomenon—a distinguished poet who was also an inspiring teacher. The Triggering Town is Hugo’s classic collection of lectures, essays, and reflections, all “directed toward helping with that silly, absurd, maddening, futile, enormously rewarding activity: writing poems.” From pieces that include “Writing off the Subject” and “How Poets Make a Living,” anyone, from the beginning poet to the mature writer to the lover of literature, will benefit greatly from Hugo’s playful and profound insights into the mysteries of literary creation.
Reviews
"Richard Hugo’s free-swinging, go-for-it remarks on poetry and the teaching of poetry are exactly what are needed in classrooms and in the world." — James Dickey, author of Deliverance
"Richard Hugo taught me that anyone with a desire to write, and an ear for language, and a bit of imagination could become a writer." — James Welch, author of Fools Crow
Also By: Richard Hugo 
Making Certain It Goes On: The Collected Poems of Richard Hugo
E Book, 2014
The definitive collection of a major American poet’s work.
The Right Madness on Skye: Poems
Paperback, 2008
The Real West Marginal Way: A Poet's Autobiography
Paperback, 1992
Of Richard Hugo's Making Certain It Goes On, David Wagoner has written: "Richard Hugo spared himself (and us) no pains or joys in making the wonderful, vigorous original poems brought together in...
Making Certain It Goes On: The Collected Poems of Richard Hugo
Paperback, 1992
The definitive collection of a major American poet’s work.
White Center: Poems
Paperback, 1980
Richard Hugo has been described by Carolyn Kizer as "one of the most passionate, energetic, and honest poets now living." Nowhere has that passion, energy, and honesty been more evident than in ...