Florida Writer's Circuit
Tim Seibles--February 2012
Tim Seibles
Tim Seibles was born in Philadelphia in 1955. He has published several collections of poetry, including Hurdy-Gurdy (1992), Hammerlock (1999), and Buffalo Head Solos (2008), each from Cleveland State University Poetry Center Press. His work has recently been featured in anthologies such as Black Nature, Seriously Funny, and So Much Things to Say. His poem, "Allison Wolff" was included in The Best American Poetry 2010 anthology. Tim has led workshops for the Cave Canem Writers Retreat and for the Hurston/Wright Foundation. He teaches in the English Department and MFA in Writing program of Old Dominion University in Virginia. He also teaches in the University of Southern Maine's low-residential Stonecoast MFA program.
John Blair--April 2012
John Blair, born in St. Petersburg, Florida, has become the first Florida-born author to win the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry, which celebrates its first decade of awards this year. Blair, who now lives in San Marcos, Texas, received the tenth annual prize for his manuscript entitled The Occasions of Paradise. In addition to a $2,000 check, the award includes book publication in Spring 2012 by the University of Tampa Press. Blair’s earlier poetry collection, The Green Girls, was the 2003 winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Award from Pleiades Press, and his short story collection, American Standard, was the 2002 winner of the Drue Heinz Literature prize and was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. He also has two novels from Ballantine/Del Rey, Bright Angel and A Landscape of Darkness.