H.L. Hix, "The Death of H.L. Hix"

Human beings are mortal. Intellectually, we know this to be a certainty. Having been born, we will die. In this episode, writer and philosopher H.L. Hix visits The Study to talk about his novella, The Death of H.L. Hix, in which he writes the story of his own death, using Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich as his prompt. What was this experience like? Why did he write this story? How did writing the story of his death change him? Why is it important for human beings to think about their death?

H. L. HIX was born in Oklahoma and raised in various small towns in the south. After earning his B.A. from Belmont College (now Belmont University) and his Ph.D. (in philosophy) from the University of Texas, Hix taught at the Kansas City Art Institute and was an administrator at the Cleveland Institute of Art, before joining the faculty of a state university in the Mountain West, where, after a term as director of the creative writing MFA, he now teaches in the Philosophy Department and the Creative Writing Program. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai University, Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer at Yonsei University in Seoul, and the “Distinguished Visitor” at the NEO MFA. He taught in the low-residency MFA at Fairleigh Dickinson University until its closure.His poetry, essays, and other works have been published in McSweeney’s, Georgia Review, Harvard Review, Boston Review, Poetry, and other journals, been recognized with an NEA Fellowship, the Grolier Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Peregrine Smith Award, and the Vern Rutsala Book Prize, and been translated into Spanish, Russian, Estonian, Urdu, and other languages.He lives in “one of those square states” with his partner, the poet Kate Northrop. To learn more, visit his website at hlhix.com

Thanks to my guest and to you, listener and fellow student, for joining me in The Study. Before you go, we'd love to welcome you into the wider work of The Study. Head to thestudynd.org for free and low cost online classes, lectures, living history performances, study clubs and other ways to curate your own study practice on your terms. Join us when you can and bring a friend!