The fellowship is part of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) and Queen’s joint ten-year Seamus Heaney Legacy project and is supported by Atlantic Philanthropies. The appointment is worth £20,000 annually and made to a distinguished poet of international repute.

Image Credit: Terrance Hayes by Dirk Skiba

Terrance is an award-winning American poet and educator. He lives in New York City, where he is Distinguished Silver Professor of Creative Writing at New York University.

He is the author of So to Speak, a collection of poems, and Watch Your Language, a collection of visual and lyric essays - twin volumes released by Penguin in 2023 that together explore the evolving dialogue between his poetry and poetics.

He has published six previous books of poems, including American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, winner of the 2018 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and finalist for both the National Book Award and the T. S. Eliot Prize, and Lighthead, which won the 2010 National Book Award.

His prose work, To Float in the Space Between: A Life and Work in Conversation with the Life and Work of Etheridge Knight, received the Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism. Among his honours are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as a MacArthur Fellowship.

Professor Nick Laird, the Heaney Professor of Poetry at Queen’s said: 

“We’re delighted to have Terrance join us as the fifth Seamus Heaney International Visiting Poetry Fellow. For many years Hayes has been one of the most vital poets not just in America but in the English language: his formal innovations are matched by an emotional candour and a linguistic sensibility that make each of his books required reading. We’re honoured he’ll be coming to work with our students.”    

Nóirín McKinney, Director of Arts Development at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland commented: 

“We are delighted to announce Terrance Hayes appointment today as the fifth Seamus Heaney International Visiting Poetry Fellow. During his time in Northern Ireland, Terrance will work closely with the MA students at Queen’s and take part in a series of engagements. We very much hope he finds plenty of inspiration during his time here, as I am sure his work and presence will inspire all those who have the pleasure of attending the events planned during this residency.”

The distinguished selection panel assigned to make the appointment included poets and lecturers at Queen’s, Nick Laird and Leontia Flynn, with Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Paula Meehan, and the late Gerald Dawe and Michael Longley, along with Professor Glenn Patterson, representing the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, and Nóirín McKinney from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Terrance Hayes will be based at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s in early 2026, presenting public readings, workshops and masterclasses for students at the University.

For more information on the Fellowship and the Fellows’ public programme, please visit: https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/people/VisitingInternationalPoetryFellows/

Media

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