As part of The Seamus Heaney Centre's Digging at 60: Archies conference, we are holding a free workshop, led by Dr Marcella McSweeney.

In 1966, Seamus Heaney published Death of a Naturalist, the collection that would launch his career and establish him firmly in the public eye as a poet of place whose local accents and autobiographical bent marked a new direction in twentieth century Irish poetry. In the same year, Heaney accepted a lectureship at his alma mater, Queen’s University Belfast, and made his first appearance on Ireland’s Late Late show, reading Blackberry Picking and gaining a mass audience thanks to the power of broadcast media.

Few poets have received such close scholarly scrutiny during their lifetimes, and interest in Heaney’s work has not waned in the years since his passing. Many scholars interested in breaking new ground are now returning to archival sources to add context and glean further insight into his prolific career.

To mark this anniversary the Seamus Heaney Centre, in partnership with the National Library of Ireland, Emory Rose Library, and Queen’s University’s Special Collections, are hosting Digging at 60: From the Archives to explore aspects of Heaney’s early career, first collection, and broadcast paratexts.

No experience necessary for this hands-on workshop. With an aesthetic and an ethos all of their own, the workshop will celebrate zines, pamphlets, and the more ephemeral publications that appear in archives.

Marcella L.A. Prince is a poet from the Midwest. Her work appears in Poetry Ireland Review, The Midwest Review and The Lonely Crowd, among others. She is co-editor of Hold Open the Door a special commemorative anthology from The Ireland Chair of Poetry (UCD Press, 2020; U Chicago Press, 2021). Her PhD at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s focused on the Midwest landscape in the Robert Bly’s first collection, Silence in the Snowy Fields. Marcella is working toward her first collection.

This workshop is part of the second day of the conference. If you want to attend the conference, please register for each day. If you also want to attend the workshop, please register separately.

Description supplied by the event organiser.