Seamus Heaney Centre Fellows at HomePlace - Jan Carson, Fiona Benson, Adam Patterson & Declan Lawn

Glen Patterson, Director of Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, joins the 2025 Fellows to talk about their writing lives.

Three-time T.S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted poet Fiona Benson will release her fourth collection Midden Witch in May. Her awards include the Forward Prize, the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.

Belfast-based novelist and short story writer Jan Carson won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland for The Fire Starters. Her new novel, Few and Far Between, is forthcoming in 2026.

Screenwriters Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson spent a decade making documentaries for Panorama before moving into drama with The Salisbury Poisonings, followed by the feature Rogue Agent. They are currently working on a new series of their original scripted drama Blue Lights.

You may also like the following events from Seamus Heaney HomePlace:

• This Sunday, 11th May, 02:00 pm, Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story with Sinead O'Shea in Conversation with Susan McKay in Magherafelt
• Next Saturday, 17th May, 07:30 pm, Mike Garry and the Cassia String Quartet in Magherafelt
• This month, 24th May, 07:30 pm, Mamó: Songs My Grandmother Gave Me: Lisa Lambe and Steve Cooney in Magherafelt

Also check out other Arts events in Magherafelt, Literary Art events in Magherafelt, Performances in Magherafelt.