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 include: 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.
