one novel - margin-walking - from gobscure (via lulu.com), three spoken word cd's (redvoice, north, speaksong with gareth mitchell), numerous pamphlets (his latest was people are their own dreams from survivors poetry.http://www.survivorspoetry.org/bookshop/pamphlets/people-are-their-own-dreams-by-sean-burn/) and three full-length collections from skrev press (www.skrevpress.com) - edgecities (isbn 1-904646-34-4), @ the edge (isbn 978-1-904646-39-6) and most recently wings are giving out. (isbn 978-1-904646-56-3).

wings are giving out : in these seven long poetic texts commissioned and toured across europe you will find voltaire as a 300 year old tyneside barista, riffs on free-improvising pianist marilyn crispell, responses to some of eva švankmajerová's many amazing and provocative surrealisms, an exploration of mental distress and recovery, love and loss, ultimately revealing pearls within the city and crossing the borders between poetry and song.  david caddy said of this collection in tears in the fence 'sean burn is keeping the alternative poetry scene alive and kicking.  here we see poems that seek to ride outside of cosy restraint and an easy life to engage with a large and troubling world' . this collection was short-listed for a dada fest 2009 disability arts award and another excellent review can be found at www.disabilityartsonline.org/?location_id=1116

if you want a flavour of my spoken word performances then there’s plenty at audioboo to choose from - http://audioboo.fm/seanburn

sean burn is one of this country's foremost experimental writers.  what marks him out from all other such writers is the radical political and social agenda he brings to this innovative body of work which includes plays and pieces of prose fiction as well as experimental poetry.  he is also a collaborative writer who works with musicians, film-makers, theatre directors, visual artists and other writers, and also young people and community groups he draws on a wide range of contemporary cultural sources, often from other writers, artists and musicians who  like him are on the margins or from the 'underground', and he also draws from histories, political, social and personal, including his own, and this gives much of his work the potency of felt experience which so many who work in a similar vein, lack. jeremy hilton– editor of fire

a hilarious elegy to this country, a fucking brilliant barking piece of sanity, epiphany-rant war-zone in-the-streets underground city-sex love song, bigger than bukowski, angrier than kerouac, funnier than anybody, and the lists are genius. always alive, bitter, joyous, warped fizzing justice language, vicious peaceful scared scary anti-blair tender terrorism for our times, one voice only can do this, that is sean burn, i defy you to read this without crying, laughing, questioning and eating more cake. matt black, author - plot 161.  (spout)

my favourite poem in the collection (wings are giving out) is 'speaksong.' it is an exploration of the crossover between poetry and song, containing the chorus: "a friend e-mails honesty and energy is all I got." it reminded me of joe strummer’s 1978 war cry at the hammy pallais . the clash were at the height their power to move and influence. joe called up to the balcony “why don’t you in the cheap seats come on down here” …. and the place erupted, exploded in a frenzy of friendly violence. sean burn’s words are a reminder that we were the generation that wouldn’t be constrained by class. we wouldn’t be marked by the way we dotted our ‘i’s and crossed our ‘t’s. we vowed to be true to our word and to speak how we found.  at a time when blair’s christian message to the world is that he would’ve sent in the troops, weapons of mass destruction or no; we need a few sean burn’s, unafraid to tell it like it is. colin hambrook - editor of d.a.o. (disability arts online)

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