Study
As a student within the centre you can choose to follow either a critical or a creative pathway, or a combination of the two.
Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney was both a student and lecturer here in Queen's University, and other famous poet-alumni of the university include Ciaran Carson, Paul Muldoon and Medbh McGuckian.
Heaney was a founding member of the famous ‘Belfast Group’ in the 1960s: a forum in which young poets came together with critics to discuss their work and the craft of good poetry more generally. The fruitful interaction of creative and critical activity is at the heart of what the centre offers students.
The centre can and should be a centre for the generation of new writing – and thinking about writing – and for new generations of writers across all forms for decades to come.
Programmes of Study
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MA English - Creative Writing
The MA in Creative Writing focuses on prose fiction and scriptwriting. It encourages students to develop as independent writers and self-reflect. It provides a broad understanding of the literary marketplace and the commercial aspects of literary production.
Creative Writing students are taught by experienced novelists, playwrights and screenwriters, attend workshops with visiting authors, publishers, editors and agents, and have a number of opportunities to present their work.
- MA in Poetry: Creativity and Criticism
Poetry is an art that brings together creative and critical thought. This programme combines these two strands into one, making it suitable for poets and critics alike.
Students are taught in an environment with a reputation for writing and critical appreciation of poetry from Ireland, Britain and the United States and benefit from the literary activities and resources of the Seamus Heaney Centre.
- PhD in Creative Writing
The PhD in Creative Writing involves both an extended piece of creative work and a related critical component. To apply for a PhD in Creative Writing you must have already completed an MA in Creative Writing in the same genre. Students with a Distinction at MA level will be given preference.
The School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s remains one of a handful of institutions which offer a PhD in Creative Writing. A former graduate of the MA in Creative Writing, Emily Dedakis, was the first student in Ireland to attain a PhD in Creative Writing and places are currently available for students wishing to study poetry, prose, or scriptwriting at doctoral level.
SUMMER SCHOOL
The Poetry Summer School
The Seamus Heaney Centre’s Poetry Summer School is an annual intensive week of creative development for emerging poets, with seminars, workshops and one-to-one tutorials, alongside a programme of readings and other evening events.
WRITING THROUGH CONFLICT
Spring Break Programme
In March 2019, the Seamus Heaney Centre hosted a group of students from Villanova University Pennsylvania for a week-long intensive writing programme. Their tutors were stage and screenwriters, novellists, and poets from the Heaney Centre. Alongside this was a full programme of social and networking opportunities to introduce students to the city and its writers.
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Student Experience
Students are taught in an environment with a reputation for writing and critical appreciation of poetry from Ireland, Britain and the United States and benefit from the literary activities and resources of the Seamus Heaney Centre.
Our students and staff are at the heart of a busy literary scene, and we host readings, talks and gigs throughout the year, open to all who enjoy creative writing in its many forms.
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Resources
The Centre has a growing library of contemporary poetry, the first of its kind in Northern Ireland, which provides a major resource for writers, critics, and lovers of poetry.
The library holds a major new archive of Seamus Heaney's television and radio appearances, with development plans underway to create the most comprehensive multimedia poetry archive in Ireland. It is hoped this will be fully accessible by Spring 2020.
