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We are happy to congratulate Barbara Sabol of Akron, OH for winning Sheila-Na-Gig Editions' Second Annual Full-Length Poetry Manuscript Prize for her work Imagine a Town. The poems in Imagine A Town reveal how a confederacy of places-a hometown, adopted city, a neighborhood-conspires to shape identity, especially when one's sense of self butts up against the values and expectations embraced by that place. These narratives convey how a girl's long view is foreshortened by smokestacks, slim resources, and the rough Alleghenies circling her blue-collar existence. Self-discovery also manifests through a reckoning of events outside the kitchen window, and in the wider world. Conversely, distance from the speaker's origins gently tightens the grasp of that place as she reconciles inevitable losses and regrets exacted by her departure. Memories of coming-of-age in a time of milkmen and trolley cars prompt a visitation to a hometown that's taken up residence in the poet's imagination as she journeys through place and time. Also infusing these poems is the tension of a constructed suburban world imposed on the natural world, such that the sight of a buck in a neighbor's yard startles a renewed connection with nature, and an awareness of deeper losses. The concept of home, a longing to belong, and the risks and rewards of carving an outsider existence lie at the beating heart of this collection.
About the author
Barbara Sabol is the author of the poetry collections Imagine a Town (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2020), which won the Sheila-Na-Gig Editions' Full-Length Poetry Manuscript Prize, and Solitary Spin (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2017), as well as two chapbooks, The Distance Between Blues (Finishing Line Press) and Original Ruse (Accents Publishing). Her poems have appeared most recently in The ComstockReview, San Pedro River Review, Literary Accents, and Voices de la Luna. Barbara's writing also focuses on Eastern forms, such as haiku, tanka and haibun. Poems have appeared in Modern Haiku, Acorn, Akitsu, Frogpond, Presence, Canadian Haiku Journal, and Never Ending Story, among others. Barbara's long- and short-form poems have appeared in numerous anthologies.¿Barbara's awards include an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council, and the Mary Jean Irion Poetry Prize. Her work has been nominated for five Pushcart Prizes, and two Touchstone awards for her short-form Japanese poetry. Barbara received a B.A. degree in French and a M.S. degree in Communication Disorders from the University of Massachusetts. She also earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. Barbara is a speech pathologist, working in a medical setting. She is also an educator, conducting writing workshops for community literary organizations. Barbara lives in Akron, OH with her husband and wonder dogs.¿
