Pitt English Professor Receives Academy Award for Literature

May 28, 2002

PITTSBURGH—Tony Hoagland, assistant professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, was awarded a 2002 Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters at the Academy's annual Ceremonial earlier this month in New York City.

This year the Academy gave eight awards of $7,500 each to honor writers of "exceptional accomplishment in any genre." These awards are among the most prestigious national awards available to writers. The Academy's 250 members nominate the candidates, and a rotating committee of writers selects the winners. The members of the 2002 committee were Russell Banks, Ann Beattie, Hortense Calisher, Horton Foote, Galway Kinnell, and Robert Pinsky.

Hoagland has received a number of awards and honors throughout his career. He was given the Academy of American Poets James Laughlin Award for his second book of poems, "Donkey Gospel" (1998). His first book, "Sweet Ruin" (1992), was chosen by Donald Justice for the 1992 Brittingham Prize in Poetry and also received the Zacharis Award from Emerson College. Other honors include two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a fellowship to the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.

Hoagland's poems and critical writings have appeared in such publications as Ploughshares, Agni, Threepenny Review, Gettysburg Review, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, and the 1991 Pushcart Prize anthology.

He received the Bachelor of General Studies degree in 1977 from the University of Iowa and the Master of Fine Arts degree in English in 1982 from the University of Arizona.

The other seven Academy Award recipients were Benson Bobrick, Christopher Durang, Linda Gregerson, Charles Johnson, Stanley Plumley, James Richardson, and Alan Shapiro.

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