McHugh is not only a poet, but a translator and an educator. She has received many awards and honors for her work, such as two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Griffin Poetry Prize, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, and the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry. In Praise of Pain was published in 1994, when more and more beauty products were up and coming. In the 90s, popular hairstyles included the “Rachel Cut,” the bob, bangs, and bleach blonde hair color. Makeup was kept to a minimum; Kate Moss brought about an androgynous look