Pictured L-R: Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn.
The Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast has announced the appointments of Fiona Benson, Jan Carson, andDeclan Lawn and Adam Patterson as the new Seamus Heaney Centre Fellows for 2024-25.
Every year, the Seamus Heaney Centre announces Fellows from the worlds of Poetry, Fiction, Music, Film and Television to explore creative writing in all its forms by working with students and contributing to the Centre’s activities within the University and the wider literary community.
Poet Fiona Benson is the author of four poetry collections: Bright Travellers, Vertigo & Ghost, Ephemeron and Midden Witch (forthcoming). All three of her published collections have been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize, and her books have won the Forward Prize, the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize, the Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.
Speaking about her appointment, Fiona said:
“I am so deeply honoured to have been offered a Seamus Heaney Centre Fellowship. Seamus Heaney was my first poetry love, and I carry his poems in my heart wherever I go, so this Fellowship is a deep joy. I am so excited to join the thriving poetry community at the Seamus Heaney Centre for a term, and to work with students and the community at large on poems and poetry. I am hugely grateful for this gesture of welcome and support from the Seamus Heaney Centre.”
Author Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. Her second novel, The Fire Starters (2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She won the Harper's Bazaar short-story competition and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, the An Post Irish Short Story of the Year, and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize. Jan is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Talking about her Fellowship, Jan stated:
“I'm absolutely delighted to be invited to be a Seamus Heaney Fellow. I'm looking forward to a rich and inspiring year of creative conversations, thought-provoking events and opportunities to learn alongside the students at the Seamus Heaney Centre.”
Screenwriters Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson met whilst working for the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, Panorama, spending a decade making investigative documentaries, both in the UK and around the world, before moving into drama. They wrote hit drama The Salisbury Poisonings, which became the BBC’s most watched drama of 2020 and was subsequently acquired by Netflix.
Their first feature-length film Rogue Agent (FREEGARD), starring James Norton and Gemma Arterton, was released on UK Netflix and in US theatres in 2022. Declan and Adam are currently working on the third and fourth series of their original scripted drama Blue Lights, about response police officers in Belfast.
Declan and Adam commented:
“This is an exciting time to be a creative In Belfast and we feel honoured that part of that journey for us will now be as Fellows of the magnificent Seamus Heaney Centre. We look forward to forging new relationships and memorable experiences with the students and staff in the coming year."
Seamus Heaney Centre Acting Director, Professor Leontia Flynn said:
“I am delighted to announce Fiona, Jan, Declan and Adam as our Seamus Heaney Fellows for 2025. We are honoured to have with us these writers of such excellence and international distinction in their fields.
“Every year the Seamus Heaney Fellows contribute to a programme of events and activities, engaging both our students and the community more widely. The arrival of the Fellows has quickly become a highlight in the Heaney Centre calendar, and we look forward very much to welcoming them in the New Year.”
Last year’s Seamus Heaney Centre Fellows were Stacey Gregg, Lisa O’Neill, and David Park. Previous Fellows have included musicians Kae Tempest, Conor Mitchell, Iain Archer, Duke Special, and Tim Wheeler; novelists Roddy Doyle, Marian Keyes, Anna Burns and Wendy Erskine; poets Vahni Capildeo, Doireann Ni Ghriofa and Denise Riley; and play-wrights and screenwriters Enda Walsh, Lisa McGee and Jed Mercurio.
The new Fellows will officially take up their posts in the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s in the new year.
The announcement comes during an exciting year as the Centre opened its doors to a new landmark building in June 2024, located at the listed historic 38 - 40 University Road and 3 Mount Charles, just a short walk from the main Lanyon building at the heart of the Queen’s campus.
The centre now features a new exhibition space displaying the University’s Seamus Heaney archive, open to the public Tuesday through Sunday, from 10.00am - 4.00pm.