Fear Not is lyrical, political, raunchy, blasphemous, and deeply engaged with ethical questions. Inspired by the Gideon Bible's list of self-help topics each poem is arranged to play off poetic and Biblical forms.

Ranging in subject from suicide to divorce, unemployment to gratitude, Afghanistan to Gethsemane, Fear Not attempts consolation, all the while mocking its own failure to lessen human pain.

Mierau also surveys contemporary culture, skewering our intense involvement with pop phenomena such as America's Next Top Model and Britney Spears. He recalls the formal beauty of the Psalms with refrains that echo the debased commercial speech used to advertise iPods, Kahlua, and Cialis.

Born in Indiana, Maurice Mierau grew up in Nigeria, Manitoba, Jamaica, Kansas, and Saskatchewan, and now lives in Winnipeg. You can watch a video trailer for Detachment: An Adoption Memoir (Freehand Books) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=g9n-HmUJTyA. Maurice is also the author of several books of poetry, including Fear Not, which won the ReLit Award in 2009, and his first collection, Ending With Music (Brick Books, 2002).

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