One Turn Around the Sun - by Tim Seibles (Paperback)

About the Book

This panorama of poems defines the twilight when a caretaker of parents realizes that life is too short.

Book Synopsis

One Turn Around the Sun is a panorama of poems that attempts to define the first appearances of life's twilight. The book also studies the intricacies of being a self: a particular personality shaped by forces seen and unseen, both knowable and not. At times, the various voices might be considered characters that agree and sustain one perspective. In other cases, contending sensibilities imply an underlying argument. This is especially true of the book within the book, which is entitled "The Hilt." Several questions drive this collection, the most central being "how can a person stay sane when so often socio-political circumstances mock all efforts to create a livable world?" This title's intention is to bolster an ongoing engagement with life at a time when running away is a great temptation.

Tim Seibles' book of poems, Fast Animal (Etruscan Press, 2011), was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award, received the triennial Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize, and the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. Seibles has received fellowships from both the Provincetown Fine Arts Center and The National Endowment for the Arts. He also won the Open Voice Award from the 63rd Street Y in New York City. His work appears in numerous literary journals including Indiana Review, Black Renaissance Noire, Huizache, Cortland Review, and Ploughshares. His poem, "Allison Wolff," was anthologized in Best American Poetry 2010.

About the Author

Born in Philadelphia in 1955, Tim Seibles has received fellowships from both the Provincetown Fine Arts Center and The National Endowment for the Arts. He also won the Open Voice Award from the 63rd Street Y in New York City. Most recently, his book of poems, Fast Animal (Etruscan Press, 2011), was nominated for a National Book Award and received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. Seibles was also awarded the triennial Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize for Fast Animal in 2014.

His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals including Indiana Review, Black Renaissance Noire, Huizache, Cortland Review and Ploughshares. His poem, "Allison Wolff," was anthologized in Best American Poetry 2010.

Seibles lives in Norfolk, Virginia, where he is a member of the English Department and MFA in writing faculty of Old Dominion University. He is a teaching board member of the Muse Writers Workshop. He also teaches part-time for the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA in Writing Program, a low-residency program which features writers from all over the country.

A highly active ambassador for poetry, he presents his work nationally and internationally at universities, high schools, cultural centers, and literary festivals. He has been a featured author in the Vancouver International Writers Festival in Vancouver, Canada, in the Calabash Festivalin Treasure Beach, Jamaica, and in the Poesia en Voz Alto Festival in Mexico City.