A former professor at the University of Montana had one of his works honored as the 2010 One Book Montana Selection.  Richard Hugo's "Selected Poems" features works from his first six poetry collections.

Hugo taught creative writing at UM for nearly 18 years.  "The poetry of Richard Hugo is one of the most profound and moving human documents that our period of American literature has produced," national Poet Laureate James Dickey said.

Humanities Montana coordinates One Book Montana and encourages all Montanans to read and discuss Hugo's poetry during the summer and fall.

It will host a moderated discussion on the Humanities Roundtable this summer and will devote several events to Hugo's work at the 2010 Montana Festival of the Book, slated for Oct. 29-30.

Born Dec. 21, 1923, in White Center, Wash., a suburb of Seattle, Hugo served as a bombardier in World War II, flying 35 combat missions in the Mediterranean. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in creative writing from the University of Washington and worked as a technical writer for Boeing for 13 years before publishing his first poetry collection, "A Run of Jacks," in 1961. Shortly after he moved to Missoula, where he taught at UM for nearly two decades. He died Oct. 22, 1982.