About Colleen Sehy
AUTHOR AND SPEAKER
My special expertise is in English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, and Shakespearean history and culture in America.
I draw inspiration from my lifelong love of the British Isles, numerous visits to Great Britain and Ireland, and more than 30 years of traveling across the US and Canada exploring places with links to the British Isles. My passion for British history and culture goes back to my childhood, when I was introduced to Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, and many other classic British children’s books. When I was eight or nine, PBS aired The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which sparked my love of English history. It’s safe to say I was the only kid on my block who waited with bated breath for each episode! I took my first trip to England when I was fifteen, and in my early 20s I started my ongoing odyssey to discover England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland here in America.
LOVE OF SHAKESPEARE
My love of Shakespeare was nurtured at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I planned to major in political science, but I enrolled in a Shakespeare class my freshman year that ended up changing the course of my life.
It led to a part-time job at the university’s performing arts center and involvement in a university group that staged Renaissance plays. These experiences sparked an interest in theater management and a transfer to Columbia College Chicago, where I completed an internship at Chicago’s famed Goodman Theatre and earned a bachelor’s degree in the school’s trailblazing Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management program, one of the first undergraduate arts management programs in the country. I also hold master’s degrees in organizational behavior and business administration.
After graduating from Columbia College, I spent five years at the Illinois Arts Council, a state grant-making agency that supports artists and arts organizations. Eventually, I managed the agency’s arts in education programs, which helped bring performing and visual artists to schools and communities across the state. My time at the Arts Council was followed by twenty-five years in higher education, much of it devoted to grant development and research administration.
THREE MONTHS IN LONDON
In 2015, I had the unexpected opportunity to spend three wonderful months in England. I lived like a local in southeast London, volunteered two days a week at Benjamin Franklin House near Trafalgar Square, explored as many historic sites as possible, and enjoyed far too many cream teas.
While it’s not always possible to spend three months wandering the British Isles, I know from personal experience that the British Isles can be found all over America. When I returned from England, I set out to write a book about the best places to find England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Shakespeare in the United States, no passport or plane ticket required. What began as one book quickly turned into a series, and I’ve spent the past nine years conducting research and visiting museums, historic sites, gardens, libraries, theaters, and festivals across the country, looking for the most interesting things to include in these books.
The first book in the series, Finding Shakespeare in America, was published in 2020. I’m hard at work on Finding Scotland in America and Finding Ireland in America, which will be followed by Finding England in America.