Poetry. 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. 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.

Author City: LARAMIE, WY USA

Harvey Lee Hix (born 1960), who signs his work H.L. Hix, is an American poet and academic. Hix is the author of books of poetry, criticism and essays and has been awarded a fellowship from the NEA. He has also won the KCAI Teaching Excellence Award, and the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry (from Truman State University Press in Missouri, no relation to the more famous prize in Britain). In 2006 he was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. He is a professor and the director of the creative writing MFA program at the University of Wyoming.