TWO POETS FEATURED AT PITT'S PITTSBURGH CONTEMPORARY WRITERS SERIES

PITTSBURGH, March 6 -- The University of Pittsburgh's Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series will host a double bill featuring poets Tony Hoagland and Dean Young on Thursday, March 23, at 8:15 p.m., in 125 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland.

Hoagland's first book, "Sweet Ruin," won the 1992 Brittingham Prize in Poetry. In 1998, "Donkey Gospel" was named the Laughlin Award winner. Other honors include two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and a fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Hoagland's poems and critical writing have appeared in such publications as American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and the 1991 Pushcart Prize anthology.

Young's books of poetry include "Design with X," "Beloved Infidel," and "Strike Anywhere," which won the 1995 Colorado Poetry Prize. His latest work, "First Course in Turbulence," was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1999. Young has received a fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, a Stegner fellowship from Stanford University, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Contemporary Writers Series is co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh's English Department, Western Pennsylvania Writing Project, Africana Studies Program, The Book Center, and the Wyndham Garden Hotel.

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