The first in a series of occasional updates

New essays on Poland, Malachy McCourt, Simone de Beauvoir, and more...

Waking up to this… during my 10 days on a Cill Rialaig writing residency on the Ring of Kerry

Quite a few years have passed since I last sent a newsletter-style email about the book I’ve been writing, but Mailchimp’s recent shutdown of TinyLetter not only served as a reminder of the impermanence of internet platforms but also a nudge to get back into the habit of sharing occasional updates with those who have long been so supportive.

I set up this Substack during the height of the Covid pandemic to share additional context around some of my coverage for Rhode Island’s alternative monthly Motif Magazine — if you missed them, you can read up on, say, the local roots of a NASA mission to probe the oceans of Jupiter’s moons, the time a U.S. college grad won a free pub in Ireland, and plenty more — but I never ended up getting a formal newsletter off the ground. That said, I’m still feeling enthused after a 10-day writing residency to revise my book manuscript at Cill Rialaig Arts Centre on Ireland’s Ring of Kerry and have been happy to see a few essays and poems of mine publish recently, with more coming soon, so thought now’s as good a time as any to finally revisit my mailing list.

I’ll be sending another note (maybe even two!) in the next week or so with a couple of exciting bits of writing news, but, after that, I hope to settle into more of a monthly cadence with these updates. If you’d like to see more or less of anything in particular, please respond to let me know. And, if you happen to be in Ireland between May 29th and June 2nd, join me at Listowel Writers’ Week. I’m thrilled to be hosting events — tickets still available! — on Thursday, May 30th with Erin Fornoff and Gustav Parker Hibbett, on Saturday, June 1st with Brendan Casey and Noel O' Regan, and on Sunday, June 2nd with Rachael English and Sinéad Gleeson. Even if you can’t be there but have read their work, leave a comment with any questions or thoughts of your own.

Thanks for any pointers as this takes form, and sending best wishes from here!

- Sean

What I’ve been writing lately:

• After I visited last year’s Magdalena Abakanowicz retrospective at the Tate Modern in London while on a stopover to see my sister in Singapore, I spent a good part of my flight hand-writing notes about the exhibit alongside the memories it resurfaced of my grandmother and my travels to Poland. After plenty of edits, the resulting essay titled “Infinite Bison” just published in Full Bleed, a literary journal dedicated to the visual arts that’s housed at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. You can order one of the remaining print editions here. (To share/like: LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky)

• Last fall, I picked up the Fitzcarraldo Editions reissue of Simone de Beauvoir's A Very Easy Death while en route to my uncle’s funeral in England. In “Adventure in Solitude,” I wrote for the Oxford Review of Books about the book’s relevance sixty years after its publication — with Björk, The Farewell, and BASIC making brief appearances. (To share/like: LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky)

• When the inimitable Malachy McCourt passed away shortly before St. Patrick’s Day, I wrote a personal tribute for Books Ireland Magazine: “Remembering Malachy McCourt.” For anybody in New York, the Irish American Writers & Artists will be hosting a celebration of his life on Thursday, May 30th in the same room that sets the stage at the start of my essay. (To share/like: via LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky)

• Going back to the holidays, Trasna — a literary journal bridging Ireland and its global diaspora — published a memorial poem, “The Sojourn,” remembering Brian O’Donovan of (W)GBH’s A Celtic Sojourn radio program and its long-running stage show, A Celtic Christmas Sojourn. (To share/like: via LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky)

• Also for some seasonal cheer, Crayon Magazine — Litro’s arts-centered sibling — published my essay, “Henry Street at Christmas, 2012,” about my memories of Dublin and a short YouTube video I shot went semi-viral during the first Covid Christmas. (To share/like: via LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky)

And a few from friends and family:

• In the latest issue of Panorama, my wife Cathlin has a beautiful short essay, “The Souvenir,” about traveling to Frankfurt, Germany with our son during his infancy.

• My cousin Aure Schrock’s first book, Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America, will be coming from MIT Press this September.

• Sláinte! Fellow Cill Rialaig resident Ali Dunworth’s book, A Compendium of Irish Pints: The Culture, Customs and Craic, is out now from Nine Bean Rows Books.

• New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck, whom I got to know while working on our respective projects out of Think Coffee on 2nd Ave. and Bleecker, has two new books, You Broke It! and How to Baby: A No-Advice Given to Motherhood, with Drawings. If you don’t already, you’ll want to subscribe to her newsletter, too!

There’s plenty more I could share, but this seems like a good enough start for now.

More soon…