AUTUMN EVENTS In association with Belfast City Council and Celebrate Belfast Admission free

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1 The SEAMUS HEANEY CENTRE for POETRY AUTUMN EVENTS 2006 BETWEEN THE MOUNTAIN AND THE GANTRIES : Belfast, Carrickfergus and other landscapes of Louis MacNeice Wednesday 27 September at 7pm in Belfast City Hall Ciaran Carson, Patricia Craig, Leontia Flynn, Michael Longley and Glenn Patterson read from MacNeice s work, and talk about what MacNeice means to them. This event will launch the brochure for the Louis MacNeice Centenary Conference and Celebration, September 2007, organised by The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry and the School of English at Queen s University. In association with Belfast City Council and Celebrate Belfast MICHAEL LONGLEY Book Launch and Reading Guest Speaker: John Banville Thursday 5 October at 5.30pm at the Bookshop at Queen s Followed at 7 pm at the Lecture Theatre G9, Lanyon Building John Banville will launch Michael Longley s Collected Poems at 5.30pm in The Bookshop at Queen s followed by a reading at 7pm in Room G9, Lanyon Building, Queen s University. Michael Longley has been described by the U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall as a contemporary who should endure over the life of our language. He is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Whitbread Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, and the Queen s Gold Medal for Poetry. The publication of his Collected Poems by Jonathan Cape is a major event in the cultural history of Northern Ireland. In association with Jonathan Cape and The Bookshop at Queen s

2 SHARON OLDS Thursday 26 October at 8pm in the Great Hall, Queen s University Sharon Olds was born in 1942 in San Francisco. Her first book of poems, Satan Says, (1980), received the inaugural San Francisco Poetry Center Award. Her second, The Dead and the Living, was the winner of the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award. Blood, Tin, Straw was published in 2000, and The Unswept Room in Selected Poems was published by Jonathan Cape in Sharon Olds powerful reading of her own work is an experience not to be missed. In association with the Belfast Festival at Queen s and Jonathan Cape Admission 6 and 5 (Tickets from Belfast Festival on or A GALA POETRY EVENING to celebrate the launch of The Blackbird s Nest and The Yellow Nib Saturday 4 November at 8pm in the Whitla Hall, Queen s University with SEAMUS HEANEY, MICHAEL LONGLEY, FRANK ORMSBY, CIARAN CARSON, MEDBH MCGUCKIAN, JEAN BLEAKNEY, CHRIS AGEE, SINEAD MORRISSEY, GEARÓID MAC LOCHLAINN, ALAN GILLIS AND LEONTIA FLYNN The earliest reference to the Belfast area in poetry comes from the 9 th century a little poem thought to have been written by a scribe in the monastery of Bangor, in the margin of a ecclesiastical text. The Blackbird of Belfast Lough, as it is known, has been much translated by John Montague, Seamus Heaney, Tom Paulin and Ciaran Carson, among others, and when the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen s University was founded in 2003 the blackbird was chosen as its emblem. Since the 1960s poets associated with Queen s University have built up an international reputation for northern Irish poetry, and some time ago it was decided that it would be appropriate for the University to publish an anthology of those poets work. Blackstaff Press, the premier publisher in Northern Ireland, will launch that anthology, The Blackbird s Nest, edited by Frank Ormsby, at a Gala Evening. This, possibly the most important poetry reading ever in Northern Ireland, brings together three generations of Queen s poets, all of whom have been acclaimed in various ways, from the Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney to Leontia Flynn, winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection of poetry. The evening also sees the launch of the second issue of the The Yellow Nib, the annual journal of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, also published by Blackstaff Press. Don t miss this opportunity to be present at a historic event! In association with The Belfast Festival at Queen s and Blackstaff Press Admission 15 and 12(Tickets from Belfast Festival on or

3 AN EVENING WITH THE POET LAUREATE ANDREW MOTION Thursday 16 November at 7pm in Lecture Theatre G9, Lanyon Building, QUB Andrew Motion was appointed as Poet Laureate in May His most recent collection is Public Property (Faber & Faber, 2002). He is also the acclaimed author of a number of biographies, including Philip Larkin: A Writer s Life (Faber & Faber, 2000). He will be reading from his poetry and from his latest book, In the Blood: A Memoir of My Childhood, published by Faber in September. He will also be outlining the work of the Poetry Archive, which he co-directs with Richard Carrington. DOUGLAS DUNN & KATHLEEN JAMIE introduced by Michael Longley Thursday 23 November at 7pm in Lecture Theatre G9, Lanyon Building, QUB Douglas Dunn was born in Renfrewshire in He is the author of many acclaimed books of poetry and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year for Elegies (Faber & Faber, 1985). He is Professor of English and Director of the Scottish Studies Institute at St Andrew s University. Kathleen Jamie was born in Renfrewshire in Her most recent poetry collection, The Tree House, was the winner of the 2004 Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection and was the 2005 Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year. She is Lecturer in Creative Writing at St Andrew s University. This is an opportunity to hear two of the most distinguished voices in contemporary Scottish poetry. The reading is linked with a research symposium, The Friendship of Poets, on relations between Irish and Scottish poetry, to be held on Friday 24 November. For further details contact Peter Mackay at p.mackay@qub.ac.uk In association with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Research Institute for Irish and Scottish Studies at Aberdeen University

4 AN EVENING OF SCOTTISH AND IRISH CLASSIC BALLADS with songs by Alison McMorland, Geordie McIntyre, Len Graham and Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin and flute and fiddle music by Ciaran and Deirdre Carson Friday 24 November at 8pm in the Old Staff Common Room, QUB Two highly respected singing partnerships show how peerless traditional singing can hold an audience spellbound Scotsman Alison McMorland was born in Renfrewshire of Ayrshire/Irish stock. She has for many years been involved in collecting and recording Scottish traditional song and has worked extensively in radio, TV, theatre and publishing. Geordie McIntyre is a Glaswegian of Irish and Highland stock. He has sung at clubs and festivals all over Britain, Ireland, and the USA. Though essentially solo performers, Alison and Geordie have developed a joint repertoire based on a fine sense of personal harmony. Len Graham and Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin are likewise solo performers who sometimes come together to sing duets. Len Graham has spent a lifetime collecting and performing the songs of his native Ulster. He was awarded the TG4 National Music Award for Traditional Singer of the Year in Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin is the author of The Hidden Ulster: People, Songs and Traditions of Oriel (Four Courts Press, 2003). Both have recorded extensively. Together the four singers will explore the rich tradition of classic ballads which have been sung in Scotland and Ireland for some hundreds of years. Ciaran and Deirdre Carson, who have been making music together for some thirty years, will be playing some jigs and reels in between the songs. Refreshments will be served HUGO HAMILTON Thursday 30 November at 7pm in Lecture Theatre G9, Lanyon Building, QUB Hugo Hamilton was born in Dublin of Irish-German parentage, and he has brought elements of that dual identity to his novels Surrogate City (1990), The Last Shot (1991) and The Love Test (1995), all published by Faber and Faber. His childhood memoir The Speckled People (Fourth Estate, 2003) was widely acclaimed. A sequel, The Sailor in the Wardrobe, was published by Fourth Estate in Sang Impur, the French translation of The Speckled People, won the Prix Femina Etranger in 2003.

5 HOW TO FIND US The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, c/o School of English Queen s University, Belfast BT7 1NN. Telephone: +44 (0) shc@qub.ac.uk Website: Lecture Theatre G9 is accessed from the quadrangle at the back of the main Lanyon Building. The Old Staff Common Room can be found if, facing the main building, you turn right and take the first doorway at the side of the building. ING LIST If you wish to add/amend/delete your details from this listing please me on shc@qub.ac.uk.