Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry
Autumn Events 2007
Welcome to the Autumn Events 2007 brochure for the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry. All Events are free with a few exceptions.
National Poetry Day Reading on 4th October £8 (£5) Tickets from the office.
Paul Durcan Event is free but ticketed through the Belfast Festival Office.
LAUNCH OF AUTUMN ISSUE OF POETRY REVIEW
with Fiona Sampson, Editor
Thursday, 8th November at 6.30 pm Queen’s Visitors’ Centre, QUB
Poetry Review is one of the most important outlets for poetry in these islands. Fiona Sampson says, “Poetry Review’s authority is built on an ability to represent the best contemporary practice against the grain of personal taste: poetries which fail to read beyond their own borders ultimately speak only and for themselves. This failure of poetic nerve fails readers and poetry alike.”
LIAM Ó MUIRTHILE AND IARLA Ó LIONAIRD
Thursday, 15th November at 7 pm Lecture Theatre G9, Lanyon North, QUB
Liam Ó Muirthile is one of the leading Irish language poets of his generation. Born in Cork in 1950, he was one of the celebrated Innti group of writers which came to prominence in the late 1960s. His latest collection is Sanas, a word which can be variously translated as secret knowledge, hint, or gloss. Iarla Ó Lionaird, born and reared in the West Cork Gaeltacht of Cúil Aodha, is one of the most highly regarded sean-nós singers of his generation, and the lead singer of the Afro Celt Sound System. He has worked on many recording projects and has composed music for the CD which accompanies Sanas. This is a unique opportunity to hear two masters of their craft working together in a way which complements and amplifies each other.
LIZ LOCHHEAD
Thursday, 22nd November at 7 pm, Lecture Theatre G9, Lanyon North, QUB
Liz Lochhead , born in Lanarkshire in 1947, is one of Scotland’s leading writers, the recipient of numerous awards and the author of many volumes of poetry, plays, and film scripts. Her most recent major collection is The Colour of Black and White: Poems 1984-2003. Her readings are justly celebrated for their powerful and often humorous delivery.
In association with the AHRC-funded Irish-Scottish Poetry Project
JUSTIN QUINN, DAVID WHEATLEY, ALAN GILLIS, LEONTIA FLYNN & CHRISTOPHER WHYTE
Friday. 23rd November at 8 pm, Old Common Room, Lanyon Building, QUB
Please Note Change of Venue and Time
Justin Quinn and David Wheatley are from the Republic of Ireland; Alan Gillis and Leontia Flynn are from Northern Ireland; and Christopher Whyte, who writes in both Gaelic and English, is from Scotland. Between them they have been awarded a plethora of prizes. Among their books are Justin Quinn, Waves and Trees; David Wheatley, Mocker; Alan Gillis, Hawks and Doves; Leontia Flynn, Those Days; and Christopher Whyte, An Tràth Duilich/ The Difficult Time.
In association with the AHRC-funded Irish-Scottish Poetry Project
SUSAN BASSNETT AND MENNA ELFYN
Thursday, 6th December at 7 pm, Lecture Theatre G9, Lanyon North, QUB
Susan Bassnett is Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Warwick and Professor in the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies, which she founded in the 1980s. She is the author of over 20 books. Her latest collection of poems and creative translations (from Alejandra Pizarnik) is Exchanging Lives: Poems and Translations (2002).
Menna Elfyn is one of the most important writers to have merged from Wales in recent years. Her work is a passionate and often humorous exploration of Welsh language and identity. Her latest book is Perffaith Nam/ Perfect Blemish: New and Selected Poems 1995-2007. Her readings are a fascinating flow between the Welsh originals and their English translations.
DEBATE:
This House Believes that the Teaching of Creative Writing Is Not Merely Pointless But Impossible
Friday, 7th December at 1pm, Seamus Heaney Centre
LOUIS MACNEICE CONFERENCE AND CELEBRATION
12th -15th September
Speakers & Poets will include:
Jonathan Allison, Simon Armitage, Terence Brown, Neil Corcoran, Valentine Cunningham, Paul Farley, Michael Longley, Peter McDonald, Medbh McGuckian, Derek Mahon, Sinéad Morrissey, Paul Muldoon, Don Paterson, Jon Stallworthy & Clair Wills.
NATIONAL POETRY DAY READING
Thursday, 4th October at 7 pm, Great Hall, QUB Lanyon Building
Admission £8 and £5 (Contact the Seamus Heaney Centre for details)
with poets from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Patience Agbabi, Gearóid Mac Lochlainn, Robert Crawford
and Gwyneth Lewis
Patience Agbabi was born in London in 1956 to Nigerian parents. She describes her poetry as ‘page meets stage’, and she is widely celebrated as a powerful and dynamic reader of her work. Her collections include R.A.W. (1995) and Transformatrix (2000). She has been Lecturer in Creative Writing at several universities. Gearóid Mac Lochlainn was born in Belfast in 1967 and educated at Queen’s University Belfast. Sruth Teangacha/ Stream of Tongues, a bilingual selection of his work, won the Michael Hartnett Award, the Butler Award and the Eithne and Rupert Strong Award. He is an accomplished musician as well as a poet and he sometimes intersperses his powerful and dynamic readings with music. Robert Crawford was born in Lanarkshire in 1959. He is Professor of Modern Scottish Literature at the University of St Andrews . Among his collections are A Scottish Assembly (1990) and The Tip of My Tongue (2003). He has twice won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Gwyneth Lewis was born in Cardiff in 1959. Together with Patience Agbabi, she was named in 2004 as one of the Poetry Book Society’s ‘Next Generation’ poets. She writes both in Welsh, her first language, and in English. Her first collection in English, Parables and Faxes (1995), won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Y Llofrudd Iaith (2000) was the Welsh Arts Council Book of the Year.
THE LUNCHBOX
Friday Lunchtime Readings in the Seamus Heaney Centre
The Lunchbox is a series of Friday lunchtime readings, debates and conversations in the Seamus Heaney Centre, organised by BBC Writer in Residence, Ian Sansom. Lunch is not provided. All events will begin at 1.00pm in the Seamus Heaney Centre and end promptly by 2.00pm.
NEW POETRY
Matt Kirkham, Maria McManus, Eoghan Walls
Friday, 5th October at 1pm, Seamus Heaney Centre
Poets associated with the Seamus Heaney Centre will read from their own work. An opportunity to hear the voices of a new generation. Maria McManus and Matt Kirkham both have first collections from Lagan Press and both were nominated for the Rupert and Eithne Strong Prize for best first collection. Matt Kirkham’s collection is The Lost Museums; Maria McManus’s is Reading the Dog. Eoghan Walls was the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2006 and is currently working on his first collection.
LAUNCH OF THE YELLOW NIB 3
Thursday, 11th October at 6.30 pm Queen’s Visitors’ Centre, Queen’s University
with readings by Ian Sansom and others
The Yellow Nib is the annual of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry. Issue No. 3 has contributions by Ian Sansom, Paul Muldoon, Toby Litt, Don Paterson, and Frank Ormsby, among others. Ian Sansom is BBC Writer in Residence at the School of English, Queen’s University.
In association with Blackstaff Press
Monday 15th Oct 2007, 7.30pm, The Harty Room, Queen's University
On the night before the announcement of this year's Booker Prize winner, a panel of critics, writers, and broadcasters will discuss the Booker Prize shortlist.
Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamis (Hamish Hamilton)
Master Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)
PAUL DURCAN
Thursday, 25th October at 7 pm, Great Hall, QUB Lanyon Building
Free Tickets available from the Belfast Festival Box Office 028 90971197
Paul Durcan is the author of some seventeen volumes of poetry, including The Berlin Wall Café (1985), A Snail in My Prime (1993), and The Art of Life (2004). He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Whitbread Poetry Award. A poet of conscience, humour, iconoclasm and lyricism, he is a superb reader of his own work. This event will be his last public appearance as Ireland Professor of Poetry. He will be reading from his just-published new collection, The Laughter of Mothers (Harvill Secker).
In association with the Ireland Chair of Poetry and Belfast Festival at Queen’s
NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH: THE LAUNCH
Friday, 2nd November at 1pm, Seamus Heaney Centre
Come along and sign up for National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in a month. There are no prizes and no winners, but all participants will be eligible to read an extract from their new novel at the reading on 30th Nov. Each Friday during November novelists and writers from the Seamus Heaney Centre – including Glenn Patterson, Andrew Pepper and Carlo Gebler - will be offering advice, warnings and encouragement.