Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry


The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry is located at Queen's University Belfast, and named after the late Seamus Heaney, recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney graduated from Queens in 1961 with a First Class Honours in English language and literature.
It was officially opened in February 2004 and its founding director was the poet and Queen's graduate Ciaran Carson. Carson retired as director in 2016 and was replaced by Fran Brearton.
On 30 April 2009, it gave Heaney a 70th birthday party involving a literary evening.

First Collection Poetry Prize

The prize is awarded to a poet whose first collection of poetry has been published in the previous year by a UK- or Ireland-based publisher. It is part of the Seamus Heaney Legacy Project funded by Atlantic Philanthropies. The winner receives £5,000 and is invited to give the Tom Quinlan Lecture in Poetry at New York University with travel accommodation and a $1,000 honorarium included.
Previous recipients of the Prize are: