Circulation

Beginning with its opening poem, ＂The Invention of Time,＂ Ken Autrey’s collection shows an attentiveness to the power of the past along with its riches and sorrows. The poems in Circulation address the writer’s upbringing, the influence of his parents, and in turn his aging, with accompanying bafflements and fulfillments. The poems often range far away from the domestic front but just as often reveal the natural marvels of his own backyard. Some of them address the challenge of employing words to convey the depths of love and attachment that sustain us. Whether the topic is skating on a frozen pond, feeding piranhas in a zoo, his daughter’s preparation for her wedding, or a visit to a junkyard with his father, events here unfold vividly, sometimes with an element of mystery, always with a sense of wonder.

Ken Autrey lives in Auburn, Alabama, where he helps coordinate the Third Thursday Poetry Series. He earned degrees from Davidson College, Auburn University, and the University of South Carolina. He is an Emeritus Professor of English at Francis Marion University in South Carolina, where he taught poetry, creative nonfiction, and advanced composition. Previously, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana and taught at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. He spent one year as a visiting professor at Hiroshima University in Japan. Autrey’s work has appeared in Chattahoochee Review, Cimarron Review, Poetry Northwest, Southern Poetry Review, Texas Review and many other journals. He has published four chapbooks: Pilgrims (Main Street Rag, 2010), Rope Lesson (Longleaf Press, 2013), The Wake of the Year (Solomon and George Press, 2016), and Penelope in Repose (Evening Street Press, 2022). He is married to Janne Debes. They have two daughters and six grandchildren.