History

Born in Templeglantine, Co Limerick, Seán Body spent his working life in the Greater Manchester area, where he worked as a probation officer, social worker and  Social Services training officer. Subsequently he ran his own training agency, specialising in child care.

Joining Manchester Poets in 1988, he established Tarantula as a Manchester Poets imprint. In 1998 he reconstituted Tarantula Publications as an independent publisher and launched the thrice yearly magazine, Brando’s Hat, which he ran for four years. He now lives in Cheshire.

His first full length collection, Witness, was published in 1995 and re-published in a revised edition by Lapwing Publications (2013). A limited edition pamphlet, Seasons, was published by Glass Head Press (2003). These poems, together with other sequences and individual poems were included in Shouldering Back the Day (Lapwing 2013). A new collection, The Journey, from Lapwing Publications, was launched in July 2019.

As editor and publisher, he produced a number of publications for Manchester Poets, including Six, in 1989, introducing six Manchester Poets, Poems from the Readaround (1995), and a number of individual Collections. For Manchester Irish Writers, he edited At the End of the Rodden (Scribhneoírí 1997), a collection of poetry and short stories.

In collaboration with Manchester Libraries, he organised special events and readings, for the Manchester Irish Festival, including a celebration of Irish Poetry in Gaelic and English, from the 6^th to the 20^th centuries.