Heather McHugh
| Heather McHugh | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 20, 1948 |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Notable works | Dangers, To The Quick |
| Notable awards | MacArthur Fellows Program |
| Spouse | Nikolai B. Popov |
Heather McHugh (born August 20, 1948) is an American poet.
Heather McHugh, a poet, translator, educator and caregiver-respite provider, was born in San Diego, California, to Canadian parents. They raised McHugh in Gloucester Point, Virginia. There, her father directed the marine biological laboratory on the York River. She began writing poetry at age five and claims to have become an expert “eavesdropper” by the age of twelve. At the age of seventeen, she entered Harvard University. One notable work was Hinge & Sign: Poems 1968-1993, which won the Bingham Poetry Prize of the Boston Book Review and the Pollack-Harvard Review Prize, and which was named by The New York Times Book Review a Notable Book of the Year. Another was "Glottal Stop: Poems by Paul Celan" which, with Nikolai B. Popov, she co-translated and introduced; the book won the Griffin International Poetry Prize.
McHugh was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1999. She taught for some 40 years at American colleges and universities, including the University of Washington in Seattle; and she still takes some students through the low-residency Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers.
In 2009, she was awarded the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" for her work. and in 2011-2012, she started the non-profit CAREGIFTED ( http://caregifted.org ) to provide respite and tribute to long-term caregivers of the severely disabled and chronically ill. For her work there she received notice from Encore.org's Purpose Prizes.
McHugh has published eight books of poetry, one collection of critical essays, and four books of translation. She has received numerous awards and critical recognition in all of these areas, including several Pushcart Prizes, the Griffin Prize in poetry, and many others. Her poems resist contemporary identity politics. She also rejects categorization as a confessional poet, although she studied with Robert Lowell during the time when that described his work.
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