Seaborn Gustavus Jones (October 10, 1942 - October 3, 2014) was an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

.Obituary
/ref> He was the author of several books of poetry.

Life and writing

Jones was born in

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...

on October 10,

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...

and died October 3, 2014. He was named after a family forebearer, 19th-century

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

Seaborn Jones Seaborn Jones (February 1, 1788 – March 18, 1864) was a United States representative from Georgia. Born in Augusta, Georgia, he attended Princeton College and studied law. By a special act of the legislature, he was admitted to the bar in 1808. ...

. He was educated in Macon public schools, attended

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 ...

, and was a former

United States Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

.Seaborn Jones, "Visiting Chagall,
Biography
''Opium Magazine'', Web, Apr. 27, 2011. At one time, Jones was Lighting and Technical Director for ''

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' (sometimes shortened to ''Mister Rogers'') is an American half-hour educational children's television series that ran from 1968 to 2001, and was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series ''Misterogers'' debut ...

'', was a certified zookeeper, and was a teacher of poetry in Macon and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Jones was published in the ''

Chattahoochee Review ''The Chattahoochee Review'' is a literary journal published by Georgia State University's Perimeter College. It is widely regarded as one of the leading voices in Southern fiction and was established in 1981. The journal contains fiction, poetry ...

'', ''

New York Quarterly The ''New York Quarterly'' (''NYQ'') was a popular contemporary American poetry magazine. Established by William Packard (1933-2002) in 1969, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine has called the ''NYQ'' "the most important poetry magazine in America." Hist ...

'', ''

Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

'', ''

River Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, whic ...

'', '' Rockhurst Review'', ''Southern Poetry Review'', ''Bogg'', ''Poetry New Zealand'', ''Studio One'', ''Wilshire Review, Louisiana Review'' and numerous other journals, including translations of his work for

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an publications. His poems have been anthologized in ''80 on the 80s'' (Ashland Poetry Press, 1990), ''Scorched Hands'' (Pariah Press), ''Chester H. Jones Foundation National Poetry Contest Winners 1993'', and in ''Java Monkey Speaks Anthology 3'' in 2008. His published books of poetry include ''Drowning From the Inside Out, Lost Keys, X-Ray Movies, Black Champagne, Getaway Car in Reverse'', and ''Going Farther into the Woods than the Woods Go'', the latter nominated for the

Pulitzer Prize in poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...

. Jones described his poems as "architectural," explaining: "I write down the mood or phrase in a notebook and build on it. Some poems seem to just roll out with no effort. I can only assume that these poems have been incubating in my unconscious and have percolated to the conscious. Everything requires rewriting."Poet of the Month: Seaborn Jones
" July 2009, PoetryNet.org, Web, Apr. 26, 2011.

Recognition

Seaborn Jones received the

Georgia Author of the Year Award Georgia Writers (GW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that works across the state to encourage and strengthen the proficiencies of writers in both the creative and business aspects of the writing life, and to provide networking opportunities ...

in poetry in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

for his book ''X-Ray Movies''. Jones received three International Merit Awards from ''

Atlanta Review ''Atlanta Review'' is an international poetry journal based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded by Daniel Veach in 1994 and is published twice a year. Karen Head of the Georgia Institute of Technology became editor in 2016. The jou ...

''. He won the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, and was selected as the

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

Alan Collins Scholar in Poetry at the

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most p ...

. Online magazine PoetryNet made him its Poet of the Month in July 2009. He was selected as a Scholar by the Broadleaf Writers Association. In 2010 Mercer University Press awarded him the Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry for his manuscript, ''Going Farther into the Woods than the Woods Go.'' The citation accompanying the award read: "Unlike any poet writing in the South, Seaborn Jones maintains a figurative connection to surrealism, one of the essential pathways of subjectivity in American Art."2010 Book Award Winners
" Mercer University Press, MUPress.org, Web, Apr. 28, 2011.

Publications

* ''Drowning from the Inside Out'' Cherry Valley, NY; Cherry Valley Editions, 1981. Afterword by William Dickey. * ''X-Ray Movies'' Georgia Arts Council, (1988/1998?) * ''Lost Keys'' Valdosta, GA: Snake Nation Press, 1996. * ''Getaway Car in Reverse'' Steam Iron Press, 2006. * ''Black Champagne'' Middle Georgia College. * ''Going Farther into the Woods than the Woods Go'' Mercer U P, 2011. ''Except where noted, bibliographic information courtesy SeabornJones.com.''SeabornJones.com
Web, Apr. 26, 2011.

Discography

*
The Worlds of Seaborn Jones
'. (Spoken word audiobook) (Senate Records/Sociology Publishing, 2008)

References

External links

Seaborn Jones WebsiteSeaborn Jones on MySpaceListen to Seaborn Jones on CDBaby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Seaborn 1942 births 20th-century American poets Writers from Macon, Georgia 2014 deaths