Muddy Matterhorn

Heather McHugh

Heather McHugh’s first book in a decade, Muddy Matterhorn, reclaims the mix of high and low that is her sensibility’s signature, in matters practical and philosophical, semantic and stylistic, mortal and transitory, amorous and political, hilarious and heartbreaking. With fierce attacks on technology and social structures, McHugh finds a way to enjoy and empathize with humanity on her own terms. Ever the outsider, McHugh combines a strong sense of self with a determination to love people and the worlds they build without losing her biting criticism or witty rejection of societal norms and expectations. She is both pragmatic and theorizing, esoteric and identifiable. The joy and anger in these poems join to form an empowered and impassioned declaration of self in a chaotic time.

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ISBN: 9781556595967

Format: Paperback

Playlist Available:

Listen to Heather McHugh read poems from Muddy Matterhorn, with musical accompaniment by Reed Turchi:

“On the Fourth Day”

“Between Beaver and Sappho”

Down to It

My passion didn’t matter
To a soul, and all
My craving passion in return

Was one unholy imposition.
(I’m not saying holiness was on
My bucket list.

But couldn’t I just settle
For a decent
Unarousability?) One day

I’d have to, when cremaindered out
On thickish air, resign myself
To a condition in which all

The coarse distinctions
(One or many, mineral
Or vegetable) become no more

Than taxonomic dust upon
An incidental breeze.
Was it not joy enough to feed

The plants, and mingle with
Some unchained dogs? THEY loved me
After all, with utter and unutterable

Loyalty. And after that, why ask a man
(And not just any man) to give up
All his high grammatical ideas,

Without even a crampon or
A gulp of airlessness—to get
Right down to business,

Down to earth,
On such a muddy
Matterhorn as me?

About the Author

Heather McHugh, recipient of a 2009 MacArthur fellowship, is the author of thirteen books of poetry, translation, and literary essays. Her prize-winning translations include a Griffin International Poetry Prize selection, and her books of original poetry have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. McHugh has taught literature and writing for over three decades, most regularly at the University of Washington in Seattle and in the low-residency MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in …

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Reviews

“[McHugh] is relatable, never writing from the lofty heights of the mountain, but walking alongside us, inviting us to play, to puzzle out the strangeness of language with her… [Her] poems teach us to look again and beckon us to find the enigmatic wisdom in the messy highs and lows of living.” —The New York Times

“McHugh demonstrates in her playful and perceptive ninth book a penchant for rhymes and puns as she questions technology and urges the reader to look closely at exactly what she might not want to see, including ‘the terror in the mirror’… [A]n alternately whimsical and serious meditation on contemporary existence.” —Publishers Weekly

“…[F]unny and fascinating and irreverent and frankly, what I need to read more of in this precise moment…” —The Rumpus

As featured in:

The New York Times, “9 New Books We Recommend This Week”