Last Night’s Fun: Ciaran Carson: A Conference and Commemoration
13th—16th September 2023
The Seamus Heaney Centre, School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s University, Belfast.  

This conference and commemoration will celebrate the work of Ciaran Carson, esteemed poet, writer and musician, Professor and founding Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, whose high standards of excellence, and high-spirited blend of local rootedness and global openness (in poet Alan Gillis’s words) he personified.  The conference will provide an opportunity for an extended discussion of his contributions to literature, and of his legacy for future generations of poets, critics and general readers.

The conference will deal with all aspects of Carson’s writing, most obviously his poetry, but also his translations, criticism, fiction and non-fiction, on subjects as diverse as music, food, the city, history, memory and violence.

Proposals for 20 minute papers are welcomed on topics including (but not limited to) the following areas which should in each case be understood as including appropriate contexts for Carson’s work:

Carson as poet | Carson as critic | Carson and translation | Carson and fiction | Carson and the archive | Carson and the visual arts | Carson and Belfast | Carson and the city | Carson and the dictionary | Carson and music

Suggestions for panels, performances and other event formats will also be welcome. Proposals of 250-300 words should be sent to shc@qub.ac.uk by the end of April 2023. Proposals should include the full name, institutional affiliation, and email address of the proposer. We aim to inform those whose proposals have been accepted by the end of May 2023.