Hated for the Gods: Poems

by Sean Patrick Mulroy

Sean Patrick Mulroy’s Hated for the Gods invites the reader to embrace their queer heritage with disarming tenderness, and urges them to celebrate the joy of gay sex without shame.

Plaintive and joyous, sexy and ferocious―often all at once― Hated for the Gods is as much a call to action as it is a work of literature. Gorgeously rendered and skillfully constructed both to educate and inspire, Sean Patrick Mulroy’s poetry weaves together stories from his coming of age in the American South of the 1990s with the broader history of gay men in America. The result is a politically radical text that will leave you shocked with all you didn’t know about the history of queer people, and surprised by what you already knew but never could articulate.

A world-renowned poet and award-winning scholar, Mulroy’s work exists in a lineage of fearless gay literature; from Shakespeare to Siken, Genji to Ginsberg. Masterfully intricate, yet effortlessly approachable, by turns hopeful and incendiary, Hated for the Gods , is a must-read for the LGBT+ community and their loved ones.

Genres: Poetry, LGBT

128 pages, Paperback

Published October 24, 2023

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free via Goodreads giveaway. This has no impact on my review.
CW: police brutality, homophobia, slurs, violence, injury description, religious bigotry, medical content

Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈
Today is celebrated by reading about queer history told via poems.

I am often very bad at reading poetry, but I found this collection immensely engaging. I loved the focus on queer history and mythology especially. This is a really powerful little collection.

[SaraEve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This combination of historical accounts as well as personal memoir is a necessary collection. It is the kind of book that makes you read the notes and delve further. I’m thankful it and the writer exist.

[Kris Saylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read this book of poetry and very much enjoyed it. In it the author explores the history of gay culture erased from modern knowledge by death, design, or both, through the lens of growing up gay in the South. There's tragedy and triumph on each page as he writes about discovering what was lost and living unashamedly as himself all while weighing the cost of both. I took my time through the beginning of the book, reflecting after each poem, but tore through the later half of once I got to the section that focused on Tchaikovsky.

I definitely recommend checking out this book. Not only are the poems and history contained within beautiful in their own right, but you won't be able to help but learn something while reading it.

[maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was AMAZING. i was feeling a bit lazy since i’m on break, so the density of it was a bit intimidating at first. but as soon as i dug into it fully…wow. there’s just so much fucking LIFE and queerness and history and mythology and just. everything that makes being queer so beautiful and so painful. and not just that, but being a queer person TODAY in this horribly erratic time we’re in. this really was just, incredible. i feel like i need to re-read and mark it up to digest it fully. it was also just incredibly inspiring, with how much history and mythology mulroy was able to squeeze into this. so beyond beautiful.

[Maxwell Kessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

HATED FOR THE GODS doesn't just make us feel the unjust heartbreak of how we figuratively and literally police sexuality, but it carries us through sexuality's history -- actual and spiritual -- through the hypocrisy, through the anger, through the pleasure, through the triumph. At the end of the journey, we are not exhausted, we are supercharged by all these things. Electric with truth, hungry with desire, focused with determination.

[Emily Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Hated for The Gods' is an exciting new collection from an author whose radical politics are matched by his sonic precision and thorough attention to meter and form. Rooted in too-often overlooked gay histories, with an eye on personal and communal liberation, the book is sure to be an enduring resource for young readers, movement veterans, and lovers of finely tuned lyric verse.

[Matt Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poetry is a mix of history, mythology and personal stories that make a narrative about queer culture that sinks in whether you're queer or not (or not sure). It's a book that Florida will want to ban and, hey, it should ban so that more people will pick this up and read it. The words are crisp and direct, the poetry is beautifully put on the page, it's a book you should pick up now.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in queer history, you must read this book. Poems that manage to be heartbreaking, engaging, formally inventive, and righteously angry all at once. I wish I were teaching right now so I could add this book to my syllabus.

[Commander Zero · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the greatest book of poetry I’ve ever read in my life.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was so much more than what i expected it would be. love.

[Cody Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some really great pieces here. My favorites include My First Date, Sex Dream in Which Tu’er Shen’s A No-Show, and Jolly Boys. This is definitely not a beginner’s level poetry collection.

[Holly Muth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit more graphic than expected but very good 4.5⭐️

[Denis Siminiuc · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOW IS THIS NOT DOING NUMBERS
BEST QUEER POETRY I VE READ
oh my lord

[Finnegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely incredible. A must-read for any and all queers.

[Ewelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a copy of this book from a story-graph giveaway. This was a beautiful collection of Poems. I just don't think I was the right audience fro it to connect with it as much as I should have or would have. Still beautiful tho.

[Eliot O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this book ten stars out of five, I would. It instantly became an all-time favorite of mine, and exceeded even my expectations as a longtime fan of Mulroy's. I have read a LOT of books of poetry over the years, and I only wish this had come out ten or fifteen years earlier so that I could have grown up with it in my head and heart as a struggling, young queer person.

If you have any interest in queer voices in contemporary poetry, Mulroy is A MUST-READ. From the very first verse to the very last, every word is chosen with the utmost care to sweep the reader off their feet with painstaking charm, humor, and the bittersweet adoration of queer folks and our gods. Mulroy has so many stories to tell and I get the feeling he won't run out any time soon. I feel lucky to hold his book in my hands.