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Life
ed. QUB; University of Ulster, PhD; lectures at UU; short stories ‘‘Cois Tine’’ and ‘‘Seán agus an Nua’’ won 1987 West Belfast Literary Prize (presented by Padraic Fiacc); University of Ulster McCrea Award for Poetry 1996; his trans. Out in the Open: Translations from the Irish of Poems by Cathal Ó Searcaigh (1997), nominated for Aristeion European Translation Prize, 1998; Hennessy Award 1997, won by Micheal Ó Conghaile for his short story ‘‘Athair’’/‘‘Father’’ as translated by Sewell; contributor to Poetry Ireland, Books Ireland, Honest Ulsterman; Literature Award, NI Arts Council, 1999; appointed ed. Writing Ulster, 2000 (UU); engaged on History of the Irish Book [RA], under gen. editorship of Robert Welch (UU); read at “Many Voices Festival of Literature” with Cathal Ó Searchaigh (whose work he translates), in Ballymoney Town Hall, Co. Antrim, 23 Feb. 2007; his translation-edition of the Selected Poems of Seán Ó Ríordáin appeared from Yale UP in 2014.
| Ulster University CV |
Dr Frank Sewell's PhD research into the poetry of Máirtín Ó Direáin, Seán Ó Ríordáin, Cathal Ó Searcaigh and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill was published as a monograph by Oxford University Press: Modern Irish Poetry: A New Alhambra (Oxford: OUP, 2000). Since then he has continued to write chapters and essays on the 'dual tradition' of twentieth-century Irish poetry in both English and Irish, including studies of work by Gabriel Rosenstock and Ciaran Carson. Other publications include translations of Irish poetry and short stories, Japanese poetry, and also original poetry. In addition Frank has edited several anthologies of contemporary writing. |
| Available at Ulster University - online [accessed 10.09.2023] |
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Works
Poetry, How the Light Gets In: Poems by Frank Sewell with Art-Work by Roger D. Robinson [exhibition programme, Portstewart, Aug. 1999, 100 signed copies] (Coleraine: Cranagh 1999); anthologised in Diarmuid Ó Breasláin, ed., An Dubh-Thuaisceart: Cnuasach Litríochta (Belfast: An Clochán 1995) [‘‘Íobairt’’
‘‘Sneachta’’].
Short Stories, ‘‘Cois Tine’’ and ‘‘Seán agus an Nua’’ anthologised in Diarmuid Ó Breasláin, ed., An Dubh-Thuaisceart: Cnuasach Litríochta (Belfast: An Clochán 1995).
Translation, Cathal Ó Searcaigh, Out in the Open, trans. F. Sewell (Indreabhan: Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1997), 243pp.; Cathal O Searcaigh, Cast in Clay: Poems, English trans. by Frank Sewell (Greyabbey: HU Publications 1997), 7pp.; Micheal Ó Conghaile, ‘‘Athair’’ [‘‘Father’’], trans. F. Sewell, Sunday Tribune Magazine (2 March 1997), pp.15-17.
Criticism, ‘Medbh McGuckian talks to Frankie Sewell’ [interview], Brangle 1: An Anthology Of New Writing From QUB, eds. Carol Rumens & F. Sewell (London: Brangle Publications 1993), pp.51-60; ‘Seán Ó Ríordáin: Joycery-Corkery-Sorcery’, Irish Review No. 23 (Winter 1998), pp.42-61; ‘ Dua agus Duais’, review of Eithne Strong, Nobel (BÁC: Coiscéim 1998), in Comhar Imleabhar 58, Uimhir 5 (Bealtaine 1999), pp.25-26; ‘‘Where the Paradoxes Grow’’: the Poetry of Derek Mahon, [pamphlet] (Coleraine: Cranagh Press, 2000), 32pp.; Modern Irish Poetry: A New Alhambra (Oxford: OUP 2001), 233pp.
Edited works, ed., An Fhearsaid/An Feile [bilingual Glor na nGael magazine] 1994; ed., H.U. /The Honest Ulsterman: In Translation, Vol. 103 (Spring 1997) [Special Translation Issue, incl. trans. by Sewell of long poems, ‘‘Field of Bones’’ and ‘‘Cast in Clay’’, by Cathal Ó Searcaigh]; ed. with Francis O’Hare, Outside the Walls [poems] (Belfast: An Clochán 1997), 56pp; ed. with Amanda Montgomery, Artwords: An Ulster Anthology of Visual and Verbal Art (Coleraine: Cranagh 2001), 34pp.; ed., Selected Poems of Sean O Riordain: The Margellos World Republic of Letters (Yale UP 2014), 288pp.
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Commentary
Carol Rumens, [Sewell’s poems] ‘look simpler than they are. While a clean melodic line often links them to folk-song and rock-lyric, and while a certain amount of demystification, carried over perhaps from performance art, remains part of the agenda, the playfulness disturbs.’
(Introduction, Outside the Walls, Belfast: An Clochán 1997).
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Quotations
‘‘Café Mozart’’: ‘The night air sweeter than profiteroles, / we couldn’t wait to take off our clothes. / So we licked and pawed our way to your flat / where Apollo eyed me like I was a rat / next morning lying on his side of the bed. / If looks could kill, honey, this cat was dead.’ (Books Ireland, Feb. 1998, p.26.)
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Notes
Translator: Sewell’s translation of Micheal Ó Conghaile’s short story ‘‘Athair’’ [‘‘Father’’] appeared in Sunday Tribune Magazine (2nd March 1997), pp. 15-17 [available online].
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