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What Good is Heaven: Poems (Volume 11)
- GenresPoetry
112 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2024
About the author
Raye Hendrix
7 books21 followersRaye Hendrix is a writer from Birmingham, Alabama. Raye’s debut full-length collection of poetry, What Good Is Heaven, is forthcoming from Texas Review Press in in September 2024 in their Southern Poetry Breakthrough Series representing Alabama.
Raye is also the author of the chapbooks Every Journal is a Plague Journal (Bottlecap Press) and Fire Sermons (Ghost City Press). Raye is the winner of the Keene Prize for Literature (2019) and the Patricia Aakhus Award (Southern Indiana Review, 2018) and her poetry appears in The Journal, Poetry Northwest, Cimarron Review, 32 Poems, Birmingham Poetry Review, Poet Lore, and elsewhere.
Raye holds degrees from Auburn University, an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD from the University of Oregon. They currently serve as the poetry editor of Press Pause Press and Co-Editor for DIS/CONNECT: A Disability Literature Column (Anomalous Press).
Raye is also the author of the chapbooks Every Journal is a Plague Journal (Bottlecap Press) and Fire Sermons (Ghost City Press). Raye is the winner of the Keene Prize for Literature (2019) and the Patricia Aakhus Award (Southern Indiana Review, 2018) and her poetry appears in The Journal, Poetry Northwest, Cimarron Review, 32 Poems, Birmingham Poetry Review, Poet Lore, and elsewhere.
Raye holds degrees from Auburn University, an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD from the University of Oregon. They currently serve as the poetry editor of Press Pause Press and Co-Editor for DIS/CONNECT: A Disability Literature Column (Anomalous Press).
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 21, 2025
Absolutely wonderful. Probably a new favorite in Poetry.
Masterfully mixes themes of queerness, life in the Southern US, and Religious trauma. If you relate to any of these, you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading this.
Masterfully mixes themes of queerness, life in the Southern US, and Religious trauma. If you relate to any of these, you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading this.
July 15, 2024
“I wanted to be a southern / man. To love a southern woman. Feel guilt for nothing.”
Thank you to the author for the gifted eARC!
In What Good Is Heaven, disability poetics scholar Dr. Raye Hendrix offers a deeply evocative collection of poems that navigate the complexities of queerness within the rural Christian culture of their home state, Alabama. With a poignant dedication, "For the places we love that don’t love us back," Hendrix sets the tone for a journey through a landscape as beautiful as it is brutal, where wonder and violence coexist.
Hendrix's mastery of language is evident throughout the collection, where even the briefest poems deliver profound impact. The opening poems immerse us in the speaker's upbringing on a farm, surrounded by the raw vitality of wildlife and natural growth. These early experiences are captured with a sense of curiosity about the organic nature of bodies and the legacies they carry, both physical and emotional. The poems document the violence inherent in rural life, such as the speaker's lessons about death through their father's mercy killings of animals. These moments of mercy linger, haunting the speaker and resonating with the collection's central question: What good is heaven?
The writing style in What Good Is Heaven is nothing short of lyrical, blending vivid imagery with poignant, often melancholic reflections. Hendrix employs rich sensory details to create a strong sense of place and atmosphere, using the natural world to mirror the speaker's emotional states. The language is intimate yet expansive, seamlessly moving between personal confessions and broader existential musings, with a rhythm that feels almost musical.
Themes of love, pain, and the struggle for self-understanding are intricately woven through the poems. Hendrix explores the paradoxes of care and harm, as the speaker grapples with being nurtured and hurt by their surroundings. The collection critically examines the repressive and abusive aspects of rural Christian upbringing, particularly its impact on the speaker's queerness. Hendrix's work critiques religious and cultural norms, juxtaposing these with a profound connection to the land—a connection that is fraught and ambivalent. The poems question what it means to call a place "home" when that place has caused so much pain. Despite the harsh realities depicted, there is also a sense of resilience and the pursuit of self-acceptance.
Some standout poems in this collection include "There Were Daisies," "Animal Instinct," "No Angels Here," "Blood in the Milk," "Husk Hymn," "Bottomfeeder," "Catalog of Acceptable Violence," and "Ripening." Each poem is a testament to Hendrix's ability to evoke deep emotions and provoke thoughtful reflection on the intersections of identity, place, and belonging.
In What Good Is Heaven, Raye Hendrix offers a powerful exploration of what it means to love and be loved by a place that is both nurturing and hostile. Through their evocative and lyrical poetry, Hendrix invites readers to reflect on their own connections to home, identity, and the natural world. I can’t wait to see what Dr. Raye does next!
📖 Recommended For: Readers who appreciate evocative and lyrical poetry, those interested in the intersection of queerness and rural Christian America, anyone who values stories of personal and existential reflection, fans of Mary Oliver and Ocean Vuong.
🔑 Key Themes: Queer Identity and Acceptance, The Tension Between Love and Pain, The Natural World and Rural Life, Critique of Religious and Cultural Norms, The Complexities of Home and Belonging.
Content / Trigger Warnings: Animal death (moderate), Sexual assault (minor), Blood (minor), Homophobia (minor), Child abuse (minor), Abortion (minor), Gun violence (minor).
Thank you to the author for the gifted eARC!
In What Good Is Heaven, disability poetics scholar Dr. Raye Hendrix offers a deeply evocative collection of poems that navigate the complexities of queerness within the rural Christian culture of their home state, Alabama. With a poignant dedication, "For the places we love that don’t love us back," Hendrix sets the tone for a journey through a landscape as beautiful as it is brutal, where wonder and violence coexist.
Hendrix's mastery of language is evident throughout the collection, where even the briefest poems deliver profound impact. The opening poems immerse us in the speaker's upbringing on a farm, surrounded by the raw vitality of wildlife and natural growth. These early experiences are captured with a sense of curiosity about the organic nature of bodies and the legacies they carry, both physical and emotional. The poems document the violence inherent in rural life, such as the speaker's lessons about death through their father's mercy killings of animals. These moments of mercy linger, haunting the speaker and resonating with the collection's central question: What good is heaven?
The writing style in What Good Is Heaven is nothing short of lyrical, blending vivid imagery with poignant, often melancholic reflections. Hendrix employs rich sensory details to create a strong sense of place and atmosphere, using the natural world to mirror the speaker's emotional states. The language is intimate yet expansive, seamlessly moving between personal confessions and broader existential musings, with a rhythm that feels almost musical.
Themes of love, pain, and the struggle for self-understanding are intricately woven through the poems. Hendrix explores the paradoxes of care and harm, as the speaker grapples with being nurtured and hurt by their surroundings. The collection critically examines the repressive and abusive aspects of rural Christian upbringing, particularly its impact on the speaker's queerness. Hendrix's work critiques religious and cultural norms, juxtaposing these with a profound connection to the land—a connection that is fraught and ambivalent. The poems question what it means to call a place "home" when that place has caused so much pain. Despite the harsh realities depicted, there is also a sense of resilience and the pursuit of self-acceptance.
Some standout poems in this collection include "There Were Daisies," "Animal Instinct," "No Angels Here," "Blood in the Milk," "Husk Hymn," "Bottomfeeder," "Catalog of Acceptable Violence," and "Ripening." Each poem is a testament to Hendrix's ability to evoke deep emotions and provoke thoughtful reflection on the intersections of identity, place, and belonging.
In What Good Is Heaven, Raye Hendrix offers a powerful exploration of what it means to love and be loved by a place that is both nurturing and hostile. Through their evocative and lyrical poetry, Hendrix invites readers to reflect on their own connections to home, identity, and the natural world. I can’t wait to see what Dr. Raye does next!
📖 Recommended For: Readers who appreciate evocative and lyrical poetry, those interested in the intersection of queerness and rural Christian America, anyone who values stories of personal and existential reflection, fans of Mary Oliver and Ocean Vuong.
🔑 Key Themes: Queer Identity and Acceptance, The Tension Between Love and Pain, The Natural World and Rural Life, Critique of Religious and Cultural Norms, The Complexities of Home and Belonging.
Content / Trigger Warnings: Animal death (moderate), Sexual assault (minor), Blood (minor), Homophobia (minor), Child abuse (minor), Abortion (minor), Gun violence (minor).
January 20, 2026
I read this book in one day. I found the poems to be accessible and also beautiful at times. As a southerner, there was one poem that was made up of a lot of phrases I’d grown up with and that one felt the most special to me. It felt like an homage to the south while poems held along side it suffer through the hurt brought on by living in such a culturally stifling locale. There were definitely some jump scares in these poems if you’re queer and while it some of it felt like a 180 (a poem on acceptable violence discussing pulling out teeth or shooting game for food alongside a stanza on hitting queer kids to basically beat the queer out of them), it’s important to recognize the south holds space for both beauty and nostalgia, pain and horror.
August 24, 2025
Really strong debut collection enmeshed in the lush landscape and fraught social politics of Appalachian Alabama. Hendrix has a number of killer descriptions, especially when it comes to the natural world (e.g. "Any Coyote" begins with, "Like tongues of fire on the mountain / the red tails of fox squirrels flicker"). There is a great deal of violence and awe to be found in Hendrix's South, one that repels us and propels us closer simultaneously. Like Jacob, Hendrix wrestles faith into the ground and survives to sing it back.
November 27, 2024
This was a really beautiful book, lush with a landscape of southern Appalachia, full of creatures and community. There’s danger and trauma here, the search for queer identity in an unfriendly environment. At its core, though, this book felt like a love letter to the mother. There’s a hopefulness that I found so endearing. I will return to this book again and again!
October 15, 2024
This. Is. Fantastic. Everything i could’ve ever wanted in a poetry collection- this had queer love, nature vs being human, child parent relationship, a fraught relationship with religion. Omigosh. It was relatable and beautiful and sad and tender and so brilliant. New favorite poetry book!
February 26, 2025
Absolutely stunning debut collection from Raye Hendrix! Especially since I currently live in Birmingham, AL, these poems speak deeply to my personal experience both here and in my home state of Mississippi. Deliciously narrative, delightfully complicated.
February 1, 2026
10/10, no skips. Raye is an incredible writer. The ability to put so many incredible poems together in an order and cadence that somehow makes the next poem even better is true literary talent. A great work.
October 24, 2024
There are times when you read a book so good that you feel like your entire writing life has been utter crap. What Good Is Heaven is one of those books. Hendrix is an absolutely essential poet.
March 27, 2025
RAYE.....
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews