Sean Carlson is working on his first book, a family memoir of migration. His essays have been published in the Irish Times, New England Review, New York Times, Oxford Review of Books, The Rumpus, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere. His poetry has been published in the Honest Ulsterman, the Irish Independent’s New Irish Writing, Ninth Letter, Ragaire, Trasna, and elsewhere. He is a regular contributor on arts, music, and literature to Rhode Island’s alt-monthly Motif Magazine. Sean has new writing forthcoming in Image Journal, the Missouri Review, and elsewhere.
Professionally, Sean works with organizations as an editorial and communications consultant. He previously managed global communications and public affairs at Google and editorial and special projects at Yahoo. He co-founded TechRaking, a series of technology and journalism summits with the Center for Investigative Reporting, hosted developer festivals in Southeast Asia, and delivered frequent talks and trainings for newsrooms, classrooms, and conferences. He has also run workshops as a program consultant with the International Center for Journalists.
At the age of 15, Sean founded Just Another Scene as an online resource for independent music across New England. (Read “Ghosts of scene sites past,” his retrospective essay on Just Another Scene for Gulf Coast.) From 2016 to 2020, he served on the board of directors of the nonprofit Irish American Writers & Artists. Sean graduated summa cum laude from Boston University with degrees in political science and in communication.
He is the recipient of a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award, a Listowel Writers’ Week bursary / Cill Rialaig Arts Centre writing residency in Ireland, a Elizabeth Kostova Foundation poetry fellowship in Bulgaria, and a St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award for Literature.