That Claude Wilkinson is bonded to the southern landscape and deeply in love with it is evident in the forty-four poems that make up Reading the Earth. These poems demonstrate a rare sensitivity to the natural world and its significance to human lives. Observers of the most mundane aspect of nature, the author not only reports but immerses the reader into full participation in his Eden.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, the author grew up on a farm in northwest Mississippi and makes his home in Nesbit. He has taught in the English departments of a number of colleges and universities. His poems have appeared in numerous publications including Atlanta Review, Colorado North Review, Georgetown Review, Visions International, and Wind. Also a visual artist, his drawings and paintings have been exhibited in many museums throughout the South. Reading the Earth, his first published volume, is the winner of the fifth annual Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award.