The Poetry Center has chosen Anselm Hollo's Notes on the Possibilities and Attractions of Existence: Selected Poems 1965-2000 for its 2002 Book Award.

Poet Joanne Kyger, judge for this year's award, selected Hollo's work because of its "unerring clarity, wit and grace of intelligence." She said the reader feels at home in Hollo's poems and his writing "carries the traditions of wisdom and awareness" in a light and humane voice. The book is a collection of some of Hollo's most memorable works in his long and fruitful career.

Born in Finland, Hollo moved to the United States in 1970. To date, he has written and translated more than 40 books. Hollo currently teaches creative writing at Naropa University, a Buddhist-inspired liberal arts college in Boulder, Colo. He has also received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and has taught at the University of Iowa and SUNY Buffalo.

His poetry tome was one of 166 judged in the competition. The annual award is given to a book of poems published in the previous year. Past recipients include Alice Notley, Sharon Olds, Larry Eigner, Laura Moriarty, Jackson Mac Low, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lyn Hejinian, Luis J. Rodriguez, Adrian Louis, Leslie Scalapino, C.D. Wright, Barbara Guest, Elaine Equi, Cole Swensen and Kevin Davies.

The Poetry Center, founded in 1954 through a gift by W.H. Auden, is one of the most long-lived and nationally renowned literary arts institutions in the United States. The Center has presented numerous readings by accomplished poets, novelists, and other writers. With its companion project, The American Poetry Archives, the Center has collected and compiled well over 2,000 original recordings of authors reading from their works. It operates under the aegis of San Francisco State University's Creative Writing Department, the largest in the country.