Richard Hugo's The Triggering Town is all about writing poetry. It is actually a collection of lectures and essays dedicated to reflecting on the poetic process and to helping other writers find their voice. Let's look briefly at the contents of this book to help you get started on your assignment.

The first chapter is called “Writing Off the Subject,” and Hugo focuses on the poet's relationship to language. What a poem is about is not as important as how the poet says what he or she has to say in a creative, even surprising way. In “The Triggering Town,” Hugo considers what triggers poets to write poems. There are a multitude of triggers, but the poem's final meaning may move far beyond the trigger.

The third chapter, “Assumptions,” invites writers to examine their assumptions, the context in which they write. These will always be present, and poets should recognize them and then let them be. “Stray Thoughts on Roethke and Teaching,” the fourth chapter, provides a memory of the poet who taught Hugo the music of language. The fifth chapter, “Nuts and Bolts,” presents the rules of writing that Hugo follows in his own work, especially the need to work hard and write all the time.

In chapter six, “In Defense of Creative-Writing Classes,” Hugo reflects on the value of writing classes and on how to properly judge a piece of writing. The seventh chapter, “Statements of Faith,” presents a writing portrait of Hugo himself and how he manages his life and his writing. “Ci Vediamo,” chapter eight, takes readers to Italy as the author remembers his time there during World War II. The last chapter, “How Poets Make a Living,” shows how nearly any subject can become a poem. It tells the story of Hugo's work in a factory and an instance that he used in his poetry.