Andrew Hudgins's poems appear in such diverse anthologies as the annual volume The Best American Poetry (1995, 1998), The Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology, The Columbia Book of Civil War Poetry, and Upholding Mystery: an Anthology of Contemporary Christian Poetry . David Impastato, editor of the latter volume, notes Hudgins's "use of an iambic line . . . to sustain his intimate, colloquial voice" as well as his "link with a Southern Gothic tradition." However, Impastato's introduction gives a less compelling reason for including Hudgins in his collection of religious poetry than Richard Tillinghast does in a review of The Never-Ending, the volume in which "Elegy for My Father" appears. Tillinghast describes Hudgins's poems as "clear and accessible," humorous and bawdy, but that underneath the "disarming personal frankness [lies] a religious sensibility. . . . He may be praying drunk," comments Tillinghast, "but he is praying." To some, Hudgins may appear irreverent...