Andrew Hudgins attracted the attention of the Pulitzer Prize Committee with his first volume. He writes in a more traditional mode than the open-form, free-verse style of many contemporary poets, and he reflects in his work a sensitivity to and identification with the Deep South. In the case of Hudgins's Saints and Strangers (1985) and After the Lost War (1988), the almost unanimous reaction of critics and readers is that Hudgins speaks with an original voice that expresses his southern identity and fundamentally American persona. His verse will have an impact on the way modern poetry is conceived and on the role modern poetry plays in contemporary letters.

Born on 22 April 1951 in Killeen, Texas, to Andrew L. and Roberta Rodgers Hudgins, the young Hudgins hardly had an opportunity to find regional roots anywhere. At the time of his birth, his father, who had completed service in the U.S. Navy...