Godspotting

Macarthur recipient's first collection of poetry embraces mortality and survival in the face of global conflict and domestic threat.

Godspotting ponders and proclaims what it means to live, die, and survive in a world that "doesn't love any of us." Considering the fragility and utterly complicated nature of life, Aleksandar Hemon's deep contemplation of human mortality shifts between surrendering to the disappearing act of death and accepting that this cruel world is still home to beautiful things. Hemon acknowledges the difficulty of living in the present as he interrogates the "shape and form" of joy, meandering through tender and complex memories of family members, his childhood and youth, and valued moments that must end. This collection challenges typically religious understandings of death and what follows, as it teeters from curiosity to radical acceptance to despair at one's inevitable demise.