The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry

Louis MacNeice Centenary Conference and Celebration

Poetry Readings

Paul Farley was born in Liverpool in 1965. He teaches creative writing at the University of Lancaster. He has won the Forward Prize for the best first collection and the Whitbread Prize for Poetry. His radio play, When Louis Met George (2003), imagines MacNeice and George Orwell meeting in Broadcasting House during the Second World War. Listen to Paul read From a Weekend First

Sinead Morrissey was born in Portadown, and has lived in Belfast, New Zealand and Japan. She has published three collections of poems with Carcanet Press: There was Fire in Vancouver (1996), Between Here and There (2002); and The State of the Prisons (2005), which was short-listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Listen to Sinead read Flight of the Heart by Louis MacNeice.

Don Paterson, poet and musician, was born in Dundee in 1963. He has published three collections of poetry with Faber, translations of Machado and Rilke, and a collection of aphorisms, The Book of Shadows (2004). He is also editor of 101 Sonnets (1999). He teaches creative writing at the University of St Andrews. Listen to Don read The Poetry

Paul Muldoon was born in Portadown in 1951. Since 1987 he has lived in the United States, where he teaches at Princeton University. He has published ten books fo poetry with Faber, and won a Pulitzer Prize, the Griffin Prize, and the T.S. Eliot Prize. Listen to Paul read The Taxis by Louis MacNeice.

Nick Laird, born in 1975, comes from Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. He currently lives in Rome. His first collection To a Fault (2005) won the Rooney Prize and his first novel Utterly Monkey won the Betty Trask award. His second collection of poems, On Purpose, has just been published by Faber. Listen to Nick read Wolves .

Simon Armitage was born in Huddersfield in 1963. His awards include a Lannan Award and a BAFTA award. In 1996, Simon Armitage collaborated with Glyn Maxwell on Moon Country, which followed in Auden’s and MacNeice’s footsteps to Iselnad. Listen to Simon read Song of the West Men

Richard Murphy, now in his eighties, is one of

Ireland

’s most distinguished poets. He is particularly known for poems that draw on the landscape and history of the west of Ireland . His Collected Poems (Gallery Press) was published in 2000, his acclaimed autobiography The Kick (Granta Books) in 2003. Listen to Richard read Moonshine .

Thomas McCarthy was born in Waterford in 1954. A poet, novelist and librarian, he lives and works in Cork . He made a major contribution to the city’s year as European Capital of Culture. He has published seven collections of poems with Anvil, most recently Merchant Prince (2005). Listen to Thomas read Atonement

Medbh McGuckian has published eleven collections of poems. She teaches creative writing at Queen’s University Belfast. Her most recent collection from Gallery Press is The Currach Requires No Harbours (2006). Her awards include the Rooney Prize, the Cheltenham Award, and, in 2002, the Forward Prize for Best Poem. Listen to Medbh read The Dowser by Louis MacNeice

Michael Longley was born in 1939. His Collected Poems was published by Cape in 2006. He has edited the Selected Poems of Louis MacNeice (recently reprinted) and 20^th Century Irish Poems (2002). In 2008 he is

Ireland

Professor of Poetry. Listen to Michael reading Section 2 of 'Trilogy for X' by Louis MacNeice.

Derek Mahon was born in Belfast in 1941. His Collected Poems was published in 1999 by Gallery Press. His most reent collection is Harbour Lights (2005), Author of a well-known elegy for MacNeice ("In Carrowdore Churchyard"), he has written the preface to a reprint of MacNeice's authobiography The Strings are False (2007). Listen to Derek reading Autobiography by Louis MacNeice.