MA Handbook 2011-12 (1) - Queen's University Belfast

All three Fulbright Scholars will also contribute to the postgraduate and undergraduate teaching
profiles of the School of English, offering various specialist seminars and workshops.
The English Society
The English Society organises readings and social events during the academic year. It is run by a
committee of students and new committee members are always welcome. Society events feature
new writing by students in the university. It is responsible for organising the annual School of
English formal dinner and arranges occasional trips to conferences and theatres outside Belfast.
Details of events and further information can be found on the English Society noticeboard on the
ground floor of 2 University Square, and on the website:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/AboutUs/TheEnglishSociety/
Creative writing in the School
The School is renowned for its vibrant and highly successful community of creative writers: Ciaran
Carson, Leontia Flynn, Glenn Patterson, Tim Loane, Medbh McGuckian, Sinéad Morrissey, Malachi
O’Doherty and Ian Sansom. Details of their work can be found in the ‘Staff Profiles’ section. The
School also hosts an on-­‐line poetry magazine, POETRY PROPER:
http://poetryproper.blogspot.com/
and publishes Yellow Nib, the annual journal of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry and edited by
Leontia Flynn.
The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry
Poetry is one of the activities for which Queen’s has always been best known. Nobel Prize winner
Seamus Heaney was a student and later a lecturer in the School of English at Queen’s, one of a
number of internationally renowned poets and writers who have worked or studied at the University
over the last forty years. The Centre for Poetry is located in 46-­‐48 University Road, connected to the
School through 1 University Square. Its director is the internationally-­‐renowned poet, Professor
Ciaran Carson. The creative writing staff are located in the Centre, along with the Heaney Centre
Research Fellow. The Centre promotes the study and practice of poetry. It contains a library of
contemporary poetry, and runs various events – for example, readings, seminars, creative writing
workshops – which complement the activities of the School of English. In the last few years visitors
to the School of English have included Allen Ginsberg, James Fenton, Andrew Motion, Carol Ann
Duffy, Seamus Heaney, Graham Swift, Alasdair Gray, Simon Callow, Seamus Deane, Edwin Morgan,
Paul Durcan, Doris Lessing, Simon Armitage, and Trevor Griffiths. There is a lively and ever-­increasing
interactive traffic through the Centre: poets, academics, research students, creative
writing students, members of the public, visitors from outside Northern Ireland. The Centre
provides a focal point for poetry as a living art, and for criticism of/research into modern poetry:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/heaneycentre
Queen’s Writers’ Group
The Queen’s Writers’ Group has been in existence since the first appointment of a Writer-­‐in-­‐
Residence at the University in the 1970s. The ethos of the group, however, stretches back still
further than that, to the 60s, when the famous Belfast Group -­‐ Heaney, Mahon, Longley et al -­‐
gathered in the University to read and discuss their work. The Writers’ Group still follows roughly
the same format. It is an open forum for anyone interested in writing, from published writers
through to absolute beginners, to share their work and discuss it with their peers. The Group meets
once a week, on Wednesday afternoons (4.00-­‐6.00pm) in the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry.
The atmosphere is open, friendly and inclusive.
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