O'Brien Sean

(1952- )

   Born in London, he grew up in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, was educated at Selwyn College, Cambridge, then studied for a postgraduate certificate in education. He taught at Beacon School, Crowborough, East Sussex, between 1981 and 1989 and was creative writing fellow at the University of Dundee from 1989 to 1990. He co-founded the literary magazine The Printer's Devil, a computer publishing company offering out-of-print books on CD. He contributes regularly to newspapers and magazines, broadcasts on radio and presented BBC Radio 4's With Great Pleasure, a selection of his favorite poems and prose. He has held fellowships at six universities in Britain and abroad and has won nine major literary awards, including the E.M. Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1991. His works include drama, essays, literary criticism, nonfiction, and poetry. Some of his poetry publications: The Indoor Park, 1983. The Frighteners, 1987. HMS Glasshouse, 1981. Ghost Train, 1995. Downriver, 2001. Cousin Coat: Selected Poems 1976-2001, 2002. Some of his poems: "Before," "Cousin Coat," "In Residence: A Worst Case View," "Not Sending Cards This Year," "Ryan's Rebirth," "Song of the South," "Terra Nova."

   Sources: Emergency Kit: Poems for Strange Times. Jo Shapcott and Matthew Sweeney, ed. Faber and Faber, 1996. Contemporary Writers in the UK (www.contemporarywriters.com). Poetry with an Edge. Neil Astley, ed. Bloodaxe Books, 1988. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbia grangers.org). The Oxford Book of Comic Verse. John Gross, ed. Oxford University Press, 1994. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.