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; Hennessey 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; engaged on
History of the Irish Book [RAcad.], 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.
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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.
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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’’] appears
in Sunday Tribune Magazine (2nd March 1997), pp. 15-17.
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