National Book Award finalist Heather McHugh presents a fast-paced and brilliantly humorous book. Utilizing medical terminology to work through loss and detachment, McHugh's startling rhymes and rhythms -- along with her sarcastic self-reflection -- serve as antidotes to the sufferings of the world. Being upgraded to serious from critical condition is a nod to the healing powers of poetry.
Heather McHugh's books of poetry include the Pulitzer Prize finalist Eyeshot; the National Book Award finalist and Bingham Poetry Prize winner Hinge & Sign: Poems 1963-1993; and the Griffin Poetry Prize-winning translation (with Nikolai Popov) Glottal Stop 101: Poems of Paul Celan. McHugh was Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and is currently Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is also a fellow American Academy of Arts and Sciences.