Alan Dugan is remarkable for the dark, blunt comedy of his distinctive voice. Nothing held sacred by others escapes him unscathed; he is, in one critic’s label, “the clown of nihilism.” After growing up in New York City, Dugan was drafted into the Air Force and served in WWII; in the 1950s he held various jobs while developing his poetry. His first volume, published in 1961, won both the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize, and his subsequent six collections—all titled Poems—were similarly acclaimed. For years he was on the faculty of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.