Posted January 27, 1999

Seamus Heaney

Hailed as the most important Irish poet since Yeats, Nobel Prize-winner Seamus Heaney visits campus Feb. 8 to 11 as the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities' Avenali professor.

The Nobel committee, which awarded Heaney the prize for literature in 1995, described his poems as "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."

One of the most widely-read poets writing in English today, Heaney is known as a dramatic and engaging reader. A recent event at Harvard drew more than 2,000 people, who stood in the rain to hear him.

During his week-long residency, Heaney will offer lectures, discussions and readings. On Monday, Feb. 8, Heaney will lecture on Irish art and artists at 8 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium, coinciding with the opening of a Berkeley Art Museum exhibit on figurative painting from 20th-century Ireland.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Berkeley English Professor Robert Hass joins Heaney Tuesday, Feb. 9 to discuss "Sounding Lines: The Art of Translating Poetry." The event takes place at 4 p.m. in the Berkeley Art Museum's Gund Theater.

Heaney will present a reading and talk entitled "Opening the Word Hoard: Readings from Beowulf," Wednesday, Feb. 10 at noon in 315 Wheeler. The event is co-sponsored by the English Department.

He closes his visit with a poetry reading at Zellerbach Playhouse Thursday, Feb. 11 at 3:30 p.m.

Heaney was born in County Derry, Ireland, received a degree in English from Queen's College in Belfast and has held teaching positions at Harvard and Oxford. His body of work includes more than 10 volumes of poetry, three collections of prose, a play, chapbooks and translations.

For information call 643-6229.

January 27 - February 2, 1999 (Volume 27, Number 20)
Copyright 1999, The Regents of the University of California.
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