Tim Seibles
About the Poet
Born on January 01, 1955, and raised in Philadelphia, Tim Seibles earned a BA at Southern Methodist University and an MFA at Vermont College of Norwich University.
His poetry approaches themes of racial tension, class conflict, and intimacy from several directions at once in poems with plainspoken yet fast-turning language. He has taught at Old Dominion University, the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program, and at Cave Canem.
Seibles is also the author of several collections of poetry, including Body Moves (1988); Hurdy-Gurdy (1992); Hammerlock (1999); Buffalo Head Solos (2004); Fast Animal (2012), which won the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and was nominated for a 2012 National Book Award; and One Turn Around the Sun (2017).
His work has also been featured in the anthologies In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African American Poetry (1994, edited by E. Ethelbert Miller and Terrance Cummings), Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009, edited by Camille Dungy), and Best American Poetry (2010, edited by Amy Gerstler).
Seibles’ honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, as well as an Open Voice Award from the National Writers Voice Project. In 2013 he received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for poetry.
Seibles lives in Norfolk, Virginia. From 2016 to 2018, he was the state's poet laureate.
Region
Hampton Roads
Virginia City or County Affiliation
Norfolk, Virginia
Current City/State of Residence
Norfolk, Virginia
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
Black or African American
Year of Birth
1955
Published Works or Performances
Seibles is the author of several collections of poetry, including
- Body Moves. Corona Press,1988.
- Hurdy-Gurdy. Cleveland State University Press, 1992.
- Hammerlock. Cleveland State University Press, 1999.
- Buffalo Head Solos. Cleveland State University Press, 2004.
- Fast Animal. Etruscan Press, 2012. [Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize; 2012 National Book Award nominee]
- One Turn Around the Sun. Etruscan Press, 2017.
His work has also been featured in many anthologies, including:
- In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African American Poetry (1994, edited by E. Ethelbert Miller and Terrance Cummings)
- Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009, edited by Camille Dungy)
- Best American Poetry (2010, edited by Amy Gerstler).
Selected Individual Poems or Performances
- Blade, Unplugged, 2012.
- Delores Jepps, 2012.
- Simple Song Blues Villanelle, 2020.
- Magnifying Glass, 2016.
- Donna James, 2012.
Tim Seibles