mediated by H. L. Hix

“Yoiks, what a strange and unexpected book God Bless is.  I feel my head turning all the way around like the girl in The Exorcist, and I feel a combination of stomach sickness and vertigo.” -William Heyen

H. L. Hix is “one of the most distinctive writers of our time.” -David Mason, The Hudson Review

In poems at once playful and grave, National Book Award finalist H. L. Hix pits excerpts from the speeches of George W. Bush against arguments from Osama bin Laden in a poetic dialogue embracing politics, literature, language, and culture. Reframing Beltway sound-bites and Islamic fundamentalist rhetoric, God Bless delves into the minds of two men whose intransigence has had global consequences. To break the stalemate, this original sequence of poems plucks the antagonists from their bunkers in Oval Office and Afghani cave and presents them, for the first time, face to face.

Hix then opens the conversation to a diverse panel of experts, including the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations, CNN’s terrorism analyst, distinguished professors of Arabic and Islamic studies, and other prominent writers and authorities, who shed light on the issues raised by the poems.

H.L.Hix has published five books of poetry, a literary criticism, and an anthology with Etruscan and has two more books forthcoming.  He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin.  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. 

H. L. Hix has published five books of poetry, a book of literary criticism, and an anthology with Etruscan, and has two more books forthcoming.  He teaches in the Creative Writing MFA at the University of Wyoming.  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. 

Publication date: October 2007

Read an excerpt of God Bless. 

Read an essay by Philip Brady on God Bless—>My Dinner With Joe