At 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, 2019, author Rachael Ikins will read from her newly released book, “Eating the Sun.”
“Eating the Sun” is a May-December love affair between a 20-something patient and her surgeon. The book quickly blossoms sensuously into a marriage of shared passions. In this cross-genre collection, Ikins cultivates multiple gardens and harvests delicate, yearning verse, recipes for fruits and vegetables sun-coaxed from the earth and luminous stories of her star-crossed union with Phillip, 30 years her senior and the love of her life. We learn of the patches of soil they till, the meals they prepare and follow their relationship throughout their seasons of love. Embracing joy and heartache, despair and delight, “Eating the Sun” is ripe and intoxicating.
For many years, Ikins was a member of the Afternoon Writer’s Group at the Canastota Public Library. Ikins is a graduate of Syracuse University and winner of the 2018 Independent Book Award for poetry for her collection Just Two Girls. She is a multiple prize-winning poet, novelist and artist having written seven chapbooks, a full-length poetry collection and a novel.
Ikins artwork has hung from Cooperstown to the NYS Fair and in galleries from Albany to Syracuse and points between. Her favorite subject is the faces and eyes of animals. Ikins lives in a small house with her animal family surrounded by nature and an enormous vegetable garden, the fruits of which she says sustain her through winter. Besides drawing and writing, she enjoys hiking with her dogs, biking on the lake, mushroom hunting and cooking. She is never without a book in hand.
“Eating the Sun” is Ikins newest book. It is published by Clare Songbirds Publishing House in Auburn. Ikins will have books available for purchase and autographing at the Canastota Library book reading event. The presentation will take place in the Children’s Area on the second floor of the Canastota Public Library.