God Bless

by H.L. Hix

In a sequence of poems at once playful and grave, National Book Award finalist H.L. Hix raises questions about religion and war, freedom and responsibility, power and justice, art and truth. Quoting George W. Bush and replicating arguments from Osama bin Laden, Hix chronicles the travesties of reason and myth behind 9/11 and the current Iraq quagmire. Hix then presents interviews with experts on the questions raised by the poems. Those interviewed Dr. Javad Zarif, Iranian Ambassador to the U.N.; Peter Bergen, CNN correspondent and author of The Osama bin Laden I Know ; Asma Afsaruddin, professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Notre Dame; Mary Habeck, a professor in the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and author of Knowing the Enemy ; Paul Woodruff , a philosopher and the author of First Democracy ; and others. H.L. Hix teaches in and directs the creative writing MFA at the University of Wyoming. In addition to his books from Etruscan, he has published a number of other books of poetry, poetry in translation, and criticism. His poetry has been recognized with the Grolier Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Peregrine Smith Award, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Genres: Poetry, Politics

174 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

H. L. Hix has published an anthology, Wild and Whirling Words: A Poetic Conversation (2004), and eight books of poetry and literary criticism with Etruscan, including Shadows of Houses (2005), Chromatic (2006), God Bless: A Political/Poetic Discourse (2007), Legible Heavens (2008), Incident Light (2009), First Fire, Then Birds (2010), As Easy As Lying: Essays on Poetry (2002), and Lines of Inquiry (2011). He has two more books forthcoming from Etruscan, As Much As, If Not More Than (2013) and I’m Here to Learn to Dream in Your Language (2014).

In addition to having been a finalist for the National Book Award for Chromatic, his awards include the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Peregrine Smith Award, and fellowships from the NEA, the Kansas Arts Commission, and the Missouri Arts Council. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin, taught at Kansas City Art Institute, and was an administrator at The Cleveland Institute of Art, before accepting his current position as professor in the Creative Writing MFA at the University of Wyoming. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and at Shanghai University.

Reviews

[Marissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Hix creates a powerful, poetic conversation between George Bush and Osama Bin Laden. Hix creates these poems by using excerpts from various speeches, letters, and discussions featuring the two men.

The presentation of the material creates a new, and meaningful message and urges the reader to re-assess the issues that have taken place in our country since 2001 (where the book begins).

It is a book that speaks to both the politically and poetically minded.