PRAISE has been pouring in for Sean Hewitt, a poet from Grappenhall, following the release of his first written collection.

Tongues of Fire, which was released in April, has been listed as one of the best reads of 2020 so far by The Guardian.

While Sean himself has been named one of the Sunday Times ‘30 under 30’ artists to look out for in the next decade.

Sean now works in Dublin at Trinity College, but has always held strong ties to home – making his success a real family affair.

The title of his book is taken from an elegy to his father Paul, who passed away last year on the day Sean signed the deal for Tongues of Fire.

Mum Deirdre, 59, says: “We’re all obviously very, very proud of him – [but] there are some mixed emotions.

“[Sean] wrote the last section of his poetry during and after his dad [passed] and added it to the collection – a lot of those poems are in tribute to his dad.”

Warrington Guardian:

Sean and his dad

He was raised as part of a large family with matriarch Cecelia O’Callaghan, now 89, he quickly developed a love of reading at St Wilfrid’s Primary School in Grappenhall – before going on to a successful university career at Cambridge and the University of Liverpool.

This academic interest formed half of the “perfect combination” of Sean’s poetic inspiration.

The other half was the area in which he was raised, with frequent fishing trips and woodland walks helping solidify his creative spirit.

Kate Kalloway, in The Guardian, said: “It is extraordinary to encounter a debut collection that feels as established as Seán Hewitt’s – and not in a willed or derivative way.

"These unmediated poems are, at the same time, charged: they pull you in swiftly, you become immersed.