About
Sean Whalen is a poet from rural Boone County, Iowa.
Sean lives near Pilot Mound. He holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Iowa State University and is a retired health-and-safety professional and volunteer fire chief.
His poems appeared in journals from at least 1997 through 2004. After a nineteen-year hiatus from writing and publishing, he returned to poetry following retirement. A sustained second period of publication began in 2023.
- PLACE
- Near Pilot Mound, Iowa
- EDUCATION
- M.A., Creative Writing · Iowa State University
- WRITING
- Published 1997–2004 · 2023–present
On the page
Across the work, ordinary Midwestern objects open toward ecology, memory, mortality, satire, and the uncanny.
The poems are grounded in concrete diction and exact technical vocabularies, with image-driven turns, dry humor, and an attention to what land and labor remember.