Poetry. With range, craft, and a dreadful curiosity about how human beings work, Richard Hoffman gives us GOLD STAR ROAD. Gold Star-an apt title for this collection, my hands-down favorite for the Barrow Street Prize 2006. Hoffman’s poems tap into moments when civilization dissolves, not superficially, but at its emotional roots. Simply reading this book becomes an engaged, passionate experience. Time and again through the poet’s weary irony comes the bite of life. -Molly Peacock. Richard Hoffman is the author of Half the House: A Memoir, and the poetry collection WITHOUT PARADISE. He is a Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College, and on faculty at the Stonecoast MFA Program, University of Southern Maine.