This award was announced at the Book Expo America in Chicago, Illinois on June 4th. Imperfect Geographies has also been singled out for praise by a number of noted editors and writers. Here are statements by some of these luminaries. This long-awaited gathering of Michael Hogan's poems contains his most memorable and disturbing work. Hogan built his reputation among small presses and chapbook publishers, creating finely crafted poems full of demonic power and dark beauty.
Hogan is a poet who learned the hard way about the saving power of poetry.
For Hogan to undertake the poem is to undertake the possibility of radical transformation. The humility and compassion of his poems warm me when others leave me chilled to the bone. He rewards the reader with intelligence and warmth and with a wide sweep of understanding. Sam Hamill, The American Poetry Review Michael Hogan works miracles in his poems. He has the true strength which a few poets, such as Wendell Berry and James Welsh, William Stafford and Gary Snyder, have found in simple words and deep clear images which reaffirm our place on this planet with other living, growing things.