FRI 17 OCT  

9.30am - Welcome  

10.00-10.45am 
Mihaela Buruiană (Literature Ireland, Translator-in-Residence 2025) in conversation with Dr Shannon Kuta Kelly (Ciaran Carson Writing and the City Fellow 2025)

11.00am-12.00pm   
Postgraduate Research Panel – chaired by Prof Piotr Blumczynski 
Joy McClean - Translating the Past for Future Generations: A Translational Analysis of the Ulster Museum’s ‘Troubles and Beyond’ Exhibition  
Audrey Kelly - Caring in translation: the role of embodied identity, experiential knowledge, and ethics of care in the translation of contemporary Chinese literature 
Thekra Almaini - Audiovisual Translation and Pedagogy: TED Videos as a Cross-Cultural Learning Tool 

12.15-1.15pm  
Translating Dead Authors: Ling Shuhua and the Bloomsbury Connection 
Nicky Harman (freelance literary translator, and trustee of Paper-Republic.org)  
introduced by Audrey Kelly (Queen’s University, Belfast) 

Nicky Harman translates from Chinese, focusing on contemporary fiction for adults and children, literary non-fiction, and occasionally poetry, by a wide variety of authors. She is a trustee of Paper-Republic.org, the charity promoting Chinese literature in translation. She writes blogs, gives talks and lectures, mentors new translators, teaches summer schools, and judges translation competitions. 

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1.45-2.00pm 
Beowulf: BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime archive episode (drop-in / during lunch break) 
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2.15-3.30pm 
Postgraduate Research Panel – chaired by Dr Stephen Sexton 
Viviana Fiorentino - Translation as metaphor of living: encounters between Plath and Rosselli 
Cian Dunne - Writing under Constraint: Mirroring the Poetic Process in the English-Russian translation of Tara Bergin’s Savage Tales 
Naomi McKeown - The Ethics of Translating Medieval Irish Literature: Seamus Heaney’s Manuscript Drafts of Sweeney Astray, and Buile Shuibhne 
Stephen de Búrca - ‘…at two removes from the original impulse’: Derek Mahon and translation as adaptation 

3.45-4.45pm 
Postdoctorate Panel – chaired by Dr Patricia Malone (Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s Collections) 
Dr Kath Stevenson (Queen’s University Special Collections) - Examining’ Heaney’s Beowulf 
Dr Milena Williamson (Queen’s University, Belfast) - Old English Charms Remixed 

5.00-6.00pm 
Translation Day Drinks Reception – open to all participants and attendees 

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SAT 18 OCT 

12.00-1.00pm, Wolfson Lecture Theatre, introduced by the SHC Archive Team
Fretwork: On Translating Beowulf: Seamus Heaney’s 1998 lecture from the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard 

Seamus Heaney's long connection with Harvard spanned several decades, beginning with his appointment as visiting lecturer in 1979.  Over the following twenty-five years he held various positions, from Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory to the Ralph Waldo Emerson Poet in Residence. It was during his time as Poet in Residence in October 1998 that he delivered a series of lectures and workshops relating to his craft. In this lecture, titled ‘Fretwork: On Translating Beowulf,’ delivered on 13th October 1998, Heaney delves into the process of translating Beowulf, tracing the treasure of the vernacular, illuminating the intricate - and intimate - work of the translator, and outlining the oracular inspiration of his interpretations of Anglo Saxon to demonstrate that no language is ever dead if we keep it on our tongue.  Presented with kind permission of the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University, and the Estate of Seamus Heaney.  

Also on display, Heaney's notebooks from the period which are held in Queen's Special Collections. 

1.15-2.00pm, Wolfson Lecture Theatre 
It Goes As Follies: Héaney ag áistriú - Heaney’s Irish language translations through the lens of the Irish music tradition. 

From Buile Shuibhne (Sweeney Astray), the medieval tale of the mad bird-king of Antrim’s Dál nAraidhe, to his favourite song An Bonnán Buí (The Yellow Bittern), Heaney found fertile soil for his imagination in the songs and stories of his ancestors. Aoibheann Devlin, Déaglán Ó Doibhlin and Sorcha Uí Chuireáin present lore, song, poetry and music on fiddle and medieval wire-strung Gaelic harp. All three are members of the group Lí Ban and hail from the shores of Heaney's beloved Lough Beg. Expect insights into the poet's relationship with his native tongue. 

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THROUGHOUT

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Beowulf at Breakfast: from Mon 13 Oct
Weekday mornings at 10.00-10.15am in the Wolfson Lecture Theatre. Archive episodes of BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime featuring Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf, read by the author/translator himself.
Audio archive courtesy of the BBC.

Beowulf Papers: Queen’s Special Collections
On display for one week only in the Weston Gallery, Heaney’s Beowulf translation documents and select student notebooks, on loan from Queen's University’s Special Collections.

For more information on the Seamus Heaney Centre's own Collections, read the latest update.