In one of the last critical endeavors of his life, Tony Hoagland lends his extensive Apollonian critical dexterity to answering questions about what makes the who of a poem audible and apt. Anybody who loves poetry--and wants to ponder again that old-fashioned question about the character of our speakers in any genre--has got to read this book.--Adrian Blevins
Tony Hoagland offers us in his poetry one of the most distinctive voices of our time. Now, in this last work of criticism he completed, he gives us a book focused directly on how a poetic voice is created, how the poet establishes a vivid personality who seems to be standing behind every line, and how in the course of the poem the poet manages to close the distance between speaker and reader to create an intimate bond. Everyone who cares about poetry will profit from this practical and luminous book.--Carl Dennis
Tony Hoagland was one of our greatest masters of the nuances, complexities, and vagaries of poetic voice. His seductive, deeply moving poems are, as he liked to say, 'connective, ' beginning in conversation and aspiring to intimacy between a poem's speaker and its reader. In The Art of Voice, Hoagland meditates on the possibilities available to those who would also aspire to poetic voice...This is a brilliant book by one of this country's foremost poets.--Kevin Prufer
Tony Hoagland's rich scholarly savvy is tethered to the passion of a poet who lived as a poetry teacher. His breezy explications double as intimate, straightforward musings. His insights about audience and tone double as insights about how we speak to one another. The Art of Voice offers poetry as a life force, a means of humanizing a complex world. We are lucky to be left with this work of scrutinizing care and instruction.--Terrance Hayes