Established through philanthropy, the Visiting International Chair for Creative Writing is part of the University’s recent development project, which included the Seamus Heaney Centre’s move to their landmark building in 2024 and enhanced public and outreach programming. 

Professor Glenn Patterson, Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s said:  

“The conversations that have led to the creation of the International Visiting Chair for Creative Writing predate the move to the new Seamus Heaney Centre in June 2024 – and in no little part shaped how we saw the Centre developing. Today’s announcement, therefore, is another major milestone in that development.  

“The announcement of Deborah Levy as the inaugural Chair, though, is beyond anything we might have hoped for when those conversations began. Deborah Levy is, quite simply, one of the greats of this age. As a novelist, poet, playwright, writer of ‘living autobiographies', and much, much more, Levy has been recognised internationally through awards such as the Prix Femina étranger and academic appointments, including a Fellowship at Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination.  

“Last year saw the premiere, in Switzerland, of 50 Minutes, the War War Jaw Jaw Bunny Play and the release of the film adaptation of her 2016 novel Hot Milk, starring Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey; next year will see a new stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and only Deborah Levy knows what else.  

“We are delighted, honoured and (can you tell?) excited that this year - ushered in with a typically brilliant appreciation of David Bowie for the Observer - will see her arrival at Queen’s University as the first Seamus Heaney International Visiting Chair for Creative Writing.” 

Deborah Levy is a novelist and playwright. Her novels include the Booker-shortlisted Swimming Home (2011) and Hot Milk (2016), The Man Who Saw Everything (2019) and August Blue (2023). Hot Milk was made into a major motion film starring Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey, released in 2025. 

Deborah is also the author of a collection of short stories, Black Vodka, and a trilogy of prize-winning Living Autobiographies: Things I Don’t Want to Know, The Cost of Living, and Real Estate. 

She has written for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and for BBC Radio 4, Deborah wrote two acclaimed dramatizations of Sigmund Freud’s most famous case studies, ‘Dora’ and ‘The Wolf Man’; other Radio 4 dramatizations include Carol Shields’ last novel, Unless, (10 episodes), Katherine Mansfield’s short story collection, In a German Pension, and Colette’s novella, Chance Acquaintances. Her most recent play, 50 Minutes, premiered at Theater Neumarkt, Zurich, in January 2025. 

Deborah was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1989-1991; AHRB Fellow at The Royal College of Art 2006-09 where she taught writing in the Animation Department, and Visiting Professor in Writing at Falmouth University 2012–15.  

Her books are widely translated around the world and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. 

Deborah Levy will officially take up her post at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s from 1 September 2026. 

For more information please visit: https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/      

Much of the Seamus Heaney Centre’s work is made possible through the generosity of philanthropy. If you wish to support the Centre, please contact Rachel Brown on email: r.brown@qub.ac.uk  

ENDS... 

Media

Media enquiries to Zara McBrearty at Queen’s Communications Office on mob: 07795676858 or email: z.mcbrearty@qub.ac.uk