# Sean Bonney

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**Sean Noel Bonney** (21 May 1969 – 13 November 2019) was an English poet born in [Brighton](/source/Brighton) and brought up in the north of [England](/source/England). He lived in [London](/source/London) and, from 2015 up until the time of his death, in [Berlin](/source/Berlin).[1] He was married to the poet [Frances Kruk](/source/Frances_Kruk).[2] [Charles Bernstein](/source/Charles_Bernstein_(poet)) published poet William Rowe's obituary for Bonney in US online magazine *Jacket2*,[3] as well as releasing his own poem "The Death of Sean Bonney."[4] Detailed notes to Bonney's [poetics](/source/Poetics) by Jacob Bard-Rosenberg are featured on the [Poetry Foundation](/source/Poetry_Foundation) website.[5] *The Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry* has published a special edition on Bonney.[6]

His publications include *Blade Pitch Control Unit* (2005), *Baudelaire in English* (2008), *Document* (2009), *The Commons* (2011), *Happiness: Poems After Rimbaud* (2011), *Letters Against the Firmament* (2015), and *Our Death* (2019).

## Life and work

Together with other UK-based poets, Bonney's work marks a progression and continuance of the [British Poetry Revival](/source/British_Poetry_Revival), combining with his abiding interest in left-wing radical movements such as [British punk](/source/Punk_subculture), the [Angry Brigade](/source/The_Angry_Brigade), the [Red Army Faction](/source/Red_Army_Faction), the American [Black Power movement](/source/Black_Power_movement), [Surrealism](/source/Surrealism) and revolutionary art in general.[7] He was an [anti-fascist](/source/Anti-fascism) activist and [revolutionary socialist](/source/Revolutionary_socialism) who joined the [2011 London riots](/source/2011_England_riots).[8][9] Living at various points in [Hackney](/source/Hackney,_London), [Hastings](/source/Hastings) and [Walthamstow](/source/Walthamstow), he was a regular attendee at the [Bob Cobbing](/source/Bob_Cobbing)-led [Writers Forum](/source/Writers_Forum) workshop, co-founding the [reading series](/source/Reading_series) Xing the Line with [Jeff Hilson](/source/Jeff_Hilson), and co-editing the press Yt Communication with [Frances Kruk](/source/Frances_Kruk).[10] A sequence of 14 line poems, *The Commons,* originally subtitled "A Narrative / Diagram of the Class Struggle' combined contemporary uprisings with the voices of the [Paris Commune](/source/Paris_Commune), the [Russian Revolution](/source/Russian_Revolution), the [English Civil War](/source/English_Civil_War) and "the cracked melodies of ancient folk songs".[11]

Following the completion of his PhD from [Birkbeck, University of London](/source/Birkbeck,_University_of_London), from 2015 to 2019 Bonney was a [postdoctoral researcher](/source/Postdoctoral_researcher) at the [John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies](/source/John_F._Kennedy_Institute_for_North_American_Studies) at the [Free University of Berlin](/source/Free_University_of_Berlin), conducting a project examining the work of [Diane di Prima](/source/Diane_di_Prima).[12]

Bonney died on 13 November 2019 in Berlin.[13]

## Books

- *London Review Bookshop Samplers, No. 2*, Face Press, 2019.
- *[Our Death](https://communeeditions.com/our-death-sean-bonney/)*, [Commune Editions](/source/Commune_Edition), 2019.
- *[Ghosts](https://material-s.blogspot.com/2020/10/sean-bonney-ghosts.html)*, [Materials](http://material-s.blogspot.com/), 2017.
- *Cancer: Poems After Katerina Gogou*, A Firm Nigh Holistic Press, 2016.
- [*All This Burning Earth: Selected Writing*](https://illwilleditions.noblogs.org/files/2016/03/BONNEY-All-this-Burning-Earth-USLETTER-READ.pdf), [Ill Will Editions](/source/Ill_Will_Editions) (online), 2016.
- *Letters Against the Firmament*, [Enitharmon Press](/source/Enitharmon_Press), 2015
- *Letters: on Harmony*, Iodine Press, 2013
- *Four Letters, Four Comments*, Punch Press, 2012
- *Happiness (Poems After Rimbaud)*, Unkant Publishing, 2011
- *[The Commons](http://www.openned.com/print/the-commons-sean-bonney.html)*, Openned, 2011
- *For the Administration*, Crater Press, 2010
- *5 After Rimbaud*, Grasp Press, 2010
- *[Document: Poems, Diagrams, Manifestos: July 7th 2005 - June 27th 2007](http://www.barquepress.com/publications.php?i=26&s=a)*, [Barque Press](/source/Barque_Press), 2008
- *[Baudelaire in English](https://www.veerbooks.com/Sean-Bonney-Baudelaire-in-English-2nd-Edition),* Veer Books, 2007
- 'from *Tracts and Commentaries: A Lecture*' (in *Pilot: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry*, 2007)
- *Black Water*, [Yt Communication](/source/Yt_Communication), October 2006
- *Document: hexprogress*, Yt Communication, May 2006
- *[Blade Pitch Control Unit](http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/1844712516.htm),* [Salt Publishing](/source/Salt_Publishing), 2005
- *Poisons, Their Antidotes*, West House Books, 2003
- *Notes on Heresy*, [Writers Forum](/source/Writers_Forum), 2002
- *The Domestic Poem*, Canary Woof, 2001
- *From the Book of Living or Dying*, [Writers Forum](http://vll-minos.bl.uk/reshelp/pdfs/writersforumpublications.pdf), 1999.
- *Astrophil and Stella*, Writers Forum, 1999.
- *now that all the popstars are dead*, damnation publications, 1996
- *Marijuana in the breadbin*, Doktor Hypno publications, 1992

## References

1. Staff, Harriet. ["RIP Sean Bonney (1969–2019)"](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2019/11/rip-sean-bonney-1969-2019). *Poetry Foundation*. Retrieved 22 November 2019.

1. ["Sean Bonney"](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sean-bonney). *Poetry Foundation*. Retrieved 7 January 2020.

1. ["Sean Bonney (1969–2019) by William Rowe | Jacket2"](http://jacket2.org/commentary/sean-bonney-william-rowe)

1. Bernstein, Charles (4 February 2020). ["The Death of Sean Bonney"](https://www.chicagoreview.org/the-death-of-sean-bonney/). *Chicago Review*

1. ["Jacob Bard-Rosenberg on Sean Bonney's Writing: 'One of the most important political efforts of our time' by Harriet Staff"](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2019/12/jacob-bard-rosenberg-on-sean-bonneys-writing-one-of-the-most-important-political-efforts-of-our-time). 27 December 2022.

1. ["Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry | Collection"](https://poetry.openlibhums.org/collections/398/)

1. ["Sean Bonney, 1969-2019"](https://communemag.com/sean-bonney-1969-2019/). 21 April 2020.

1. ["Our Death: Aspects of the radical in Sean Bonney’s last book of poems"](https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/feature-our-death-aspects-of-the-radical-in-sean-bonneys-last-book-of-poems/). *Overland Literary Journal*. 2024-11-07. Retrieved 2024-12-20.

1. ["Sean Bonney, 1969-2019"](https://communemag.com/sean-bonney-1969-2019/). *[Commune](/source/Commune_(magazine))*. 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2024-12-20.

1. ["Yt Communication blog"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120626162741/http://ytcommunication.blogspot.com/). 2012-06-26. Archived from [the original](http://ytcommunication.blogspot.com/) on 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2019-12-06.

1. ["Openned - Print - The Commons - Sean Bonney"](http://www.openned.com/print/the-commons-sean-bonney.html). *openned.com*. Retrieved 2019-12-06.

1. ["Sean Bonney"](https://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/faculty/literature/persons/wimis/Bonney/index.html) (in German). *jfki.fu-berlin.de*. 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2019-12-06.

1. ["RIP Sean Bonney (1969–2019) by Harriet Staff | Poetry Foundation"](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2019/11/rip-sean-bonney-1969-2019). 9 February 2022.

## See also

- [British Poetry Revival](/source/British_Poetry_Revival)
- [Katerina Gogou](/source/Katerina_Gogou)
- [Amiri Baraka](/source/Amiri_Baraka)

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