Biography
Seán Hewitt, FRSL, is a poet, novelist, memoirist and critic. His first collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire (Jonathan Cape, 2020), was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and won The Laurel Prize in 2021. His second collection of poems, Rapture's Road (Jonathan Cape, 2024), was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. All Down Darkness Wide (Jonathan Cape, 2022), a memoir, won The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2022, and 300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World, a collaboration with the artist Luke Edward Hall, was published by Penguin, in 2023. His debut novel is Open, Heaven (2025). Seán's work has been translated into more than ten languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Seán also has an ongoing interest in the literature of the Irish Revival, ecopoetics, and literature and science. His monograph J.M. Synge: Nature, Politics, Modernism, was published by Oxford University Press in 2021, and he has written on figures such as W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Roger Casement, and Emily Lawless. Seán teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate levels, on the MPhil Creative Writing, and supervises candidates for the PhD in Literary Practice. Selected Publications Open, Heaven. Novel. Jonathan Cape (2025), Knopf (USA and Canada, 2025), Einaudi (Italy, 2025), Suhrkamp (Germany, 2025), Robert Laffont (France, 2025), De Arbeiderspers (Netherlands, 2025), Solumbokvennen (Norway, 2025), Gyldendal (Denmark, 2025), Urano (Spain, 2025), Stereoma (Greece, 2025) Rapture's Road. Poetry. Jonathan Cape (2024), Knopf (USA, 2026) Three Hundred Thousand Kisses: Queer Love in the Ancient World, illustrated by Luke Edward Hall. Translation / Anthology. Penguin: Particular Books (2023), Clarkson Potter (USA, 2023), L'Ippocampo (Italy, 2024), HarperCollins Brazil (Brazil, 2024), Eulyoo (South Korea, 2025), Editions Ducasse (France, 2025) All Down Darkness Wide. Memoir. Jonathan Cape (2022), Penguin Press (USA, 2022), Solum Bokvennen (Norway, 2022), De Arbeiderspers (Netherlands, 2023), Literarna Basta (Czechia, 2024), Urano (Spain, 2026) J.M. Synge: Nature, Politics, Modernism. Critical study. Oxford University Press (2021) Buile Suibhne. Poems. with illustrations by Amy Jeffs. Fine Press Poetry (2021) Tongues of Fire. Poems. Jonathan Cape (2020), Knopf (USA, 2026)
Publications and Further Research Outputs
- Sean Hewitt, Yeats's Re-Enchanted Nature, International Yeats Studies, 2, (2), 2018, p1 - 20Journal Article, 2018, URL , TARA - Full Text
- Sean Hewitt, Dialectics, Irony, and J.M. Synge's The Well of the Saints, Review of English Studies, 68, (286), 2017, p773 - 790Journal Article, 2017, URL
- Sean Hewitt, "An Initiated Mystic": Modernization and Occultism in J.M. Synge's The Aran Islands, New Hibernia Review, 19, (4), 2015, p58 - 76Journal Article, 2015, URL
- Sean Hewitt, "A Black Knot": Temporalities, Modernisation, and the One-Act Plays of J.M. Synge, English Studies, 97, (8), 2016, p859 - 876Journal Article, 2016, URL
- Sean Hewitt, 'The Abbey Theatre', Oxford Bibliographies in British and Irish Literature, Oxford University Press, 2018, -Bibliography, filmography, etc., 2018, URL
- Seumas O'Sullivan and Revivalist Nature Poetry in, editor(s)Matthew Kelly , Nature and the Environment in Nineteenth-Century Ireland, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2019, [Sean Hewitt]Book Chapter, 2019
- Natural History and the Irish Revival in, editor(s)Kathryn Conrad, Cóilín Parsons and Julie McCormick Weng , Science, Technology, and Irish Modernism , Syracuse, NY, Syracuse University Press, 2019, [Sean Hewitt]Book Chapter, 2019
- Emily Lawless: The Child as Natural Historian in, editor(s)Sinéad Mooney and Kathryn Laing , Irish Women's Writing at the Turn of the 20th Century , Brighton, Edward Everett Root , 2019, [Sean Hewitt]Book Chapter, 2019
- Sean Hewitt, 'Writing and Evolutionary Theory', Oxford Bibliographies in British and Irish Literature, New York, Oxford University Press, 2019, -Bibliography, filmography, etc., 2019
- Seán Hewitt, J.M. Synge: Nature, Politics, Modernism, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2021, 1-256ppBook, 2021, URL
- Seán Hewitt, Gerard Manley Hopkins's "Skies of Couple-Colour", Victorian Poetry, 58, (3), 2021Journal Article, 2021, URL
- Nineteenth Century Contexts, (2021), Seán Hewitt ; Anna Pilz, [eds.]Journal, 2021
- Irish Modernism: A Queer History? in, editor(s)John Greaney, Tamara Radak, Paul Fagan , Irish Modernisms: Gaps, Conjectures, Possibilities, London, Bloomsbury, 2021, [Seán Hewitt]Book Chapter, 2021
- Queerness and Homosociality in, editor(s)Martin Dubois , Gerard Manley Hopkins in Context, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023, [Seán Hewitt]Book Chapter, 2023
- Yeats's Sacred Grove in, editor(s)Susanne Hobson and Andrew Radford , The Edinburgh Companion to Modernism, Myth and Religion, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2023, pp285 - 298, [Seán Hewitt]Book Chapter, 2023
- Fairy and Folk Tales of Bedford Park in, editor(s)Lauren Arrington and Matthew Campbell , The Oxford Handbook of W.B. Yeats, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2023, [Seán Hewitt]Book Chapter, 2023
- Derek Mahon's "Late Sacramental Gleam" in, editor(s)Nicholas Grene and Tom Walker , Derek Mahon: A Retrospective, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2023, [Sean Hewitt]Book Chapter, 2023
- Seán Hewitt, The Comedies of the Irish Revival, Forum for Modern Language Studies, 2022Journal Article, 2022
- Seán Hewitt, Emily Lawless, Natural History, and the Possibilities of Enchantment, Irish University Review, 54, (2), 2024Journal Article, 2024, URL
- Sean Hewitt, 'Lantern', London, Offord Road Books, 2019, -Poetry
- Seán Hewitt, Tongues of Fire, London, Jonathan Cape, 2020, 80ppBook
- Seán Hewitt, All Down Darkness Wide, London, Jonathan Cape, 2022, 1 - 240ppBook
- Seán Hewitt, 300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love in the Ancient World, London, Penguin: Particular Books, 2023, 1 - 208ppBook
- Seán Hewitt, Rapture's Road, London, Jonathan Cape, 2024, 1 - 80ppBook
- Introduction in, editor(s)n/a , The Persian Boy, London, 2024, [Seán Hewitt]Book Chapter
- Seán Hewitt, Open, Heaven, Jonathan Cape, 2025Book
- Introduction in, Some Poems of Roger Casement, Dublin, New Island Books, 2025, [Sean Hewitt]Book Chapter
- Introduction in, I Put a Spell on You, London, Vintage, 2025, [Sean Hewitt]Book Chapter
Research Expertise
Contemporary Poetry; Ecocriticism; Irish Writing; Queer Literature; Fiction; the Irish Revival; Modernism; Poetics; Science and Literature
Languages and literature, Performing arts,
Recognition
- Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2020
- Maurice J Bric Medal of Excellence (Irish Research Council) 2020
- The Laurel Prize 2021
- Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature July 2023
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature present
- Judge for The Dylan Thomas Prize, 2024 January 2024 - July 2024
- Peer reviewer, Liverpool University Press 01/01/2022
- Mentor, Diversifying Irish Poetry: Poetry Critics of Colour in Ireland 2021
- External assessor, University College Cork hiring committee August 2023
- Judge for David Cohen Lifetime Achievement Award 2025 2025
- Mentor, Poetry Ireland Introductions 2021
- Mentor, Irish Writers Centre / Dublin Book Festival Young Writer Delegates scheme 2022
- Judge for PEN Heaney Prize 2025
- Mentor, Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics Scheme 2021
- Peer Reviewer: Liverpool University Press Modern Language Association (MLA) Studi irlandesi: A Journal of Irish Studies English Studies The Parish Review ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 2020
- Advisory Board Member, Diversifying Irish Poetry: Poetry Critics of Colour in Ireland 2020