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.