Sean Webb
Poet / Writer / Editor
Bio &
CV
Sean Webb has received many honors for his work, including fellowships from The Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Utah Arts Council. Most recently, he won the Tucson Festival of Books Literature Prize for Poetry, the Asheville Poetry Review William Matthews Poetry Prize, the Gemini Magazine Poetry Open, and the Passages North Neutrino Prize. He received an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop and was selected by Grace Paley to serve as Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in 2005. His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including december magazine, The North American Review, Prairie Schooner, The Quarterly, Nimrod, The Greensboro Review, The Seattle Review, Philadelphia Stories, and Schuylkill Valley Journal. His chapbook "The Constant Parades" was selected by Afaa Weaver as a runner up in the Moonstone Arts Chapbook contest and his chapbook "What Cannot Stay Small Forever" was a runner up in the Finishing Line Press chapbook competition. Sean also has extensive experience as a writer and editor working in medical and scientific fields for universities, research organizations, and medical publishers. He currently lives in Wilkes-Barre and works as the managing editor and chief lexicographer for a line of medical dictionary products.
Reviews
. . . the writer of these lines knows the value of things, the weight and the subtlety of words, the wonders of sound.
It is a pleasure to find such a keen ear and a sharp eye working in tandem
Louis McKee
Philadelphia City Paper
in reference to the poem "Pawnshop"
The poem is deeply felt and observed, yet never falsely so. It is a journey where there is always more:
more to consider, more to explore, more boundaries, more perceptions. Part of the poem's understated power emerges from the fact that the writer seeks
to apprehend the moment more than to explain it.
It reminds me why I love
to read poems.
Reading this, I am reminded what the short form can do—stun us with a vivid image, enter into a conflict, and leave us with wonderings that we might not have entertained before.
At times blunt, operatic, and dirty, “Pigworks” risks much, makes me uncomfortable. Good work.
A compassionate look at what the food industry does to animals and humans, these poems form a clear appeal to a deeper justice. The song is one of sincerity.
Afaa Weaver
in reference to the chapbook "The Constant Parades"
Audio and Video Links
Books
What Cannot Stay Small Forever
a chapbook of poems about childhood
(bleak and alarming at times)
from Finishing Line Press
The Constant Parades
a chapbook of poems about factory
and meat packing plant work
(also bleak and alarming at times . . . hmmm)
Available from Moonstone Arts Publishing
News & Events
A collection of five poems won the 2024 Tucson Festival of Books Literature Prize for Poetry.
The collection "Disappointment Awaits" was a finalist in the Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Book Contest, October 2023.
"American Genesis" won the Asheville Poetry Review William Matthews Poetry Prize, June 2021.
"On a Day's Pause from the Rigors of Metastases We Walk Through Laurel Hill Cemetery, You and I" was the runner up in the 2021 Philadelphia Stories Sandy Crimmins National Prize in Poetry.
"Wake" took 2nd Place in the 2020 Gemini Magazine Poetry Open.
"On the Solitary Death of Uncle Mike" won the Editor’s Choice and "A Herringbone Pattern of Tiny Iowas" was a Finalist in the 2020 Philadelphia Stories Sandy Crimmins National Prize in Poetry.
"What Cannot Stay Small Forever" took 2nd place in the 2019 Finishing Line Press Chapbook Competition.
"A Sudden Turn" was a finalist in the december magazine Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize, 2019.
"Fields" won the 2017 Gemini magazine Poetry Open.
"Tools" took 2nd place in the Public Poetry contest on the theme of "Work" 2017.
"American Genesis" was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in flash fiction, 2017.
Events
Going on Now!
April 1-24, 2024, I will read from my work on April 5th as part of a solo exhibition of poems presented as unbound text with accompanying audio at the King's College Widmann Gallery in Wilkes-Barre, Penn. More details later.
Contact
For more information, please contact me or subscribe to my mailing list.
Tel: 215.284.1973 | seanwebbpoetry@gmail.com
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