Since its establishment in 2004 as a home for creative writing at Queen’s, the Seamus Heaney Centre has developed a number of locally-held collections that document the various and overlapping stories that belong to us: The Seamus Heaney Broadcast Archive, featuring material from BBC and RTE, which offers a rich archive of Heaney’s thoughts, interviews, readings, and commissioned broadcast output; the Ciaran Carson Collection, containing the working library of our first director (a map, if you like, of the poet’s mind at work); the Poetry Library, featuring books donated to, found within, and created at the SHC; and our provenance collection, which details the founding and growth of the Centre itself.

Over reading week, the archive staff will be running introduction sessions to the archive for staff and students. These sessions will provide an overview of our collections (what materials we hold) and offer information on how the archive can support research for both academic and creative writing. We will also provide practical guidelines on accessing and referencing materials along with advice for those new to working with archival resources.

The sessions for students will be held on Tuesday the 29th of October at 10.30am and 12pm. The session for staff will be held on the same day at 2pm. We look forward to seeing you!