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Gustav Parker Hibbett

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Gustav Parker Hibbett
Born (1996-02-03) February 3, 1996 (age 29)
California, United States
EducationStanford University (BA)
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Trinity College, Dublin (PhD)
Occupation(s)Poet, essayist
Notable workHigh Jump as Icarus Story (2024)
AwardsJohn Pollard Prize
T. S. Eliot Prize (shortlist)
Websitegustavparkerhibbett.com

Gustav Parker Hibbett is an American poet and essayist. Their debut poetry collection, High Jump as Icarus Story was published by Banshee Press in 2024.[1] The collection was shortlisted for the 2024 T. S. Eliot Prize,[2] and won the 2025 John Pollard Prize[3] as well as the Southword Debut Poetry Collection Award.[4] Their poem “Quickly and Quietly” was highly commended for the 2024 Forward Prize.[5]

Early life and education

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Hibbett was born in California and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They attended Albuquerque Academy where they excelled in high jump.[6] Hibbett earned a BA in English from Stanford University.[7] During their undergraduate studies they spent one year at the University of Oxford.[8]

Hibbett subsequently attended the University of Alabama, in pursuit of an MFA in Creative Writing. Feeling dissatisfied with the program, they left after two years without taking their degree. They are currently a PhD candidate in Literary Practice at Trinity College Dublin.[9]

Personal life

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Hibbett is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.[5] They currently live in Dublin, Ireland with their partner, Abbie.[10]

Writing

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Hibbett’s writing has appeared in The London Magazine, Guernica, and Poetry Ireland Review, as well as in anthologies, including Romance Options: Love Poems for Today (Dedalus Press, 2022) and fourteen poems: queer poetry anthology (fourteen poems, 2023).[11] They were a 2023 “Featured Emerging Poet” in 32 Poems[12] and a 2024 finalist for The Adroit Journal’s Gregory Djanikian Scholarship in Poetry.[13] As of 2025 they are a writer-in-residence at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios.[14]

High Jump as Icarus Story

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Hibbett’s debut collection High Jump as Icarus Story was published by Banshee Press in 2024, edited by Irish poet Jessica Traynor.[15] 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.[16]

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]

Awards and recognition

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Year Work Award Result Ref
2021 "Endurance" Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Prize Runner-up [17][18]
2024 "Quickly and Quietly" Forward Prizes for Poetry Longlisted [5]
High Jump as Icarus Story T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlisted [19]
2025 John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize Won [20]
Farmgate Café National Poetry Award Shortlisted [21]
Southword Debut Poetry Collection Award Won [4]
Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize Shortlisted [22]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "High Jump as Icarus Story by Gustav Parker Hibbett". Banshee Press. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  2. ^ Dublin, Trinity College. "Gustav Parker Hibbett T.S Eliot Prize - Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute | Trinity College Dublin". www.tcd.ie. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  3. ^ "Gustav Parker Hibbett wins John Pollard Prize". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  4. ^ a b "Victoria Kennefick wins Farmgate Café National Poetry Award – Munster Literature Centre". 2025-05-09. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  5. ^ a b c "Home and/or Home: Seán Carlson Interviews Erin Fornoff and Gustav Parker Hibbett". The Common. 2025-02-10. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  6. ^ "First Fortnight workshops, celebrating Paul Durcan and the best of luck to poet Gustav Parker Hibbett". Irish Independent. 2025-01-10. Retrieved 2025-05-15.
  7. ^ "Gustav Parker Hibbett '14 wins John Pollard Prize". Albuquerque Academy. 2025-05-09. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  8. ^ "In Conversation With: Gustav Parker Hibbett". universitytimes.ie. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  9. ^ Leonard, Sue (2024-09-21). "Beginner's pluck: Debut poetry collection of Gustav Parker Hibbett". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  10. ^ Leonard, Sue (2024-09-21). "Beginner's pluck: Debut poetry collection of Gustav Parker Hibbett". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2025-05-15.
  11. ^ "Gustav Parker Hibbett". Gustav Parker Hibbett. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  12. ^ "Emerging Poet Feature: Gustav Parker Hibbett | 32 Poems Magazine". 32poems.com. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  13. ^ "The Gregory Djanikian Scholars Program". The Adroit Journal. 2018-10-23. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  14. ^ "Gustav Parker Hibbett | Temple Bar Gallery + Studios". www.templebargallery.com. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  15. ^ Loft, Zadie (2025-01-10). "Interview | Gustav Parker Hibbett: 'I grew up with other people being the authority in defining my identity.'". The London Magazine. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  16. ^ Davey, Orla. “Young Critic Orla Davey Reviews Gustav Parker Hibbett’s High Jump as Icarus Story.” YouTube, uploaded by The Poetry Society, December 15, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UejbLct8ddE.
  17. ^ "Issue Forty: Gustav Parker Hibbett". The Adroit Journal. 2022-01-21. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  18. ^ Hibbett, Gustav Parker (2021). "Endurance". The North American Review. 306 (3): 86–93. ISSN 0029-2397.
  19. ^ Creamer, Ella (2024-10-01). "TS Eliot prize for poetry shortlist contains 'a strong strain of elegy'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  20. ^ Dublin, Trinity College. "Gustav Parker Hibbett wins 2025 Pollard International Poetry Prize". www.tcd.ie. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  21. ^ "Farmgate Café National Poetry Award Shortlist – Munster Literature Centre". 2025-04-22. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
  22. ^ "Amelia Loulli wins Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
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