Frank Ormsby
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Frank Ormsby (born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland in 1947) is an Northern Irish poet.
Ormsby's books of poetry include the collections Ripe for Company (Belfast, Ulsterman Publications, 1971), A Store of Candles (Oxford University Press, 1977), A Northern Spring (London, Secker & Warburg, 1986), and The Ghost Train (Oldcastle, Co Meath, The Gallery Press, 1995). He has edited a number of anthologies, including Poets from the North of Ireland (Belfast, Blackstaff Press, 1979 revised edition, 1990), Thine in Storm and Calm: An Amanda McKittrick Ros Reader (Blackstaff Press, 1988), The Collected Poems of John Hewitt (Blackstaff Press, 1991), Northern Windows: An Anthology of Ulster Autobiography (Blackstaff Press, 1987) and The Hip Flask: Short Poems from Ireland (Blackstaff Press, 2001).
Ormsby came to prominence in the early 1970's.
In 1992 he received the Cultural Traditions Award, given in memory of John Hewitt, and in 2002 the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry from the University of St. Thomas at St Paul, Minnesota. He was editor of The Honest Ulsterman from 1969-1989, and has also edited the Poetry Ireland Review. He is the Head of English at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.
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Frank Ormsby is also known for his excellent lessons at Belfast grammar school, Royal Belfast Academical Institutions, where his pupils regard him with a misture of fear and awe. The students who attend his classes know him as Crazy Frank, F**kin' Frank, Frank 'F**kin' Ormsby, Frank 'The Tank' Ormsby, Frank 'Jack Daniels Ormsby' and many more abreviations.
