Seamus Heaney

Seamus HeaneySeamus Heaney was an Irish poet who wrote extensively about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. He received numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His work had a profound influence on my development as a poet.

Why Heaney?

I first encountered Seamus Heaney in person during my undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley. I had originally been admitted to the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science double-major program, having won two of the university’s most prestigious scholarships, been introduced to the Chancellor, assigned a high-ranking advisor from the Engineering faculty, and generally been welcomed to …

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Open Thanks

My friend and colleague Kelly Forrister (née O’Brien) stopped by this evening to hand me an autographed copy of Seamus Heaney’s New Selected Poems: 1966-1987. She studied with him and several others on a summer course at Trinity College, Dublin, and had pints with him after class. This was just after his appointment at Oxford, …

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