etruscan press | bearing imagination...

Chromatic

Poems by H. L. Hix

H. L. Hix's newest poetry book, Chromatic, bears as its epigraph the philosopher Spinoza's assertion that "Desire is the very nature or essence of every single individual." The three sequences of poems in Chromatic test that claim. Each borrows its title: "Remarks on Color" from Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Eighteen Maniacs" from Duke Ellington, and "The Well-Tempered Clavier" from J. S. Bach. Exploiting those predecessors, the poems in Chromatic explore the full range of effects caused by human desire, from ecstasy to suffering.

H. L. Hix teaches in and directs the creative writing MFA at the University of Wyoming. In addition to his books from Etruscan - a poetry collection, Shadows of Houses, a collection of essays on poetry entitled As Easy As Lying, and an anthology, Wild and Whirling Words - 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.

Chromatic has been nominated for the 2006 National Book Award in Poetry.

paper/80 pp/ISBN: 0-9745995-6-5/$15.95

Publication Date: July 2006