High Jump as Icarus Story
Hibbett’s debut collection High Jump as Icarus Story was published by Banshee Press in 2024, edited by Irish poet Jessica Traynor. [14] In a review for The Poetry Society, Orla Davey observed
Hibbett’s debut collection charts the heights and depths of identity formation in contemporary America through a poetic diaspora of the mythic and modern. Our athletic speaker also embodies the mythological Icarus, who plunged into the sea after daring to fly too close to the sun. Yet in the face of failure and oppression, our high-jumper continually rises again, forging a blazing existence that redefines masculinity, race, and sexuality. Ambitious in form and triumphant in execution, this collection reminds us that failing and falling are also opportunities for resurrection and redemption. [15]
American poet Richie Hofmann praised the collection, noting “High Jump as Icarus Story is a radiant book of flight and triumph, equally at home in myth and in our dilapidated world. Coming of age, coming into desire, forging a self in life and on the page – these are the poem’s transformations. ‘If paradigms don’t fit,’ Gustav Parker Hibbett writes, ‘it’s okay to customize them.’ Their debut collection is persuasive, original, and glorious.” [1]
English poet Seán Hewitt offered similar praise, writing "Stylish, tender, playful and rigorous all at once, in this collection Gustav Parker Hibbett proves themselves to be one of our most compelling new voices.” [1]
