Sean Frederick Forbes has been a “busy bee” these days. Besides holding down his post as Director of Creative Writing in the English Department at UCONN, he’s busy promoting his book, Providencia. as well as taking on additional responsibilities as a newly appointed Board Member of the IAAS, the nonprofit organization that manages 2Leaf Press. .
Forbes held his book party at the UCONN Coop Bookstore on March 5, 2013, sharing anecdotes about growing up in Queens, New York and tales of the small Caribbean Island his family hails from, Providencia, for which the book was named. More information about the reading and Forbes thoughts about his work can be read at UCONN’s newspaper, The Daily Campus.
Recently, Forbes was pleasantly surprised when he found out that his poem, “Cashel Man,” was featured on “Poem-A-Day” on The Academy of American Poets’ website, which was selected by Guest Editor, Marilyn Nelson, an Academy Chancellor.
Forbes debut poetry collection, Providencia, consists of 49 lyrical poems largely inspired by the physical boundaries of Providencia, a small island off the coast of Columbia in South America against a Jamaica, Queens, New York landscape, and the fragile webs that intertwine human relationships in the poet’s quest for self. What started out as part of a doctoral dissertation, over the years Forbes developed Providencia into a fully realized collection, rich with imagery that readers will find riveting.
