Go to Harvard at 17. Get published by The New Yorker before grad school. Receive a “Genius Grant.” Snip your locks into a pixie cut, and voila—you have Heather McHugh, a true word nerd with a knack for poetry with true pizzazz. McHugh has managed to take the word “poetry” and flip it on its axis, not only creating an art form that’s accessible to the common literary dummy and literary elite simultaneously, but also by projecting such youthful grace and innovation at the age of 67. McHugh is just as much a jazzy musician as she is a writer. Take her word for it— “The rhythms of a language must be irresistible—while the humdrums of it have to be resisted.” Colin Gorenstein spondee.com