Wed 9 - Sat 12 Jun 2027 | Queen's University Belfast 

Michael Longley, who died in January 2024, was one of the foremost lyric poets of his time. He was celebrated in Ireland, Britain, Europe, the USA and beyond for a body of work which, over a period of more than sixty years, combined beauty of precise observation with depth of vision and a remarkable formal range. He is known for his poems of war, including his response to the Northern Ireland Troubles. His poems of the natural world, mainly set in the west of Ireland, have won him recognition as a pioneering eco-poet. Also a great love poet, Longley was loved in turn by several generations of readers for the humane reach of his uniquely consequential imaginative authority.

Michael Longley’s poetry, in the thirteen volumes from No Continuing City (1969) to The Slain Birds (2022), and in the posthumously-published The Night Before Spring (forthcoming, March 2027), makes him one of the most significant writers of our time. This Conference and Commemoration will be a decisive moment in the assessment of his legacy, seen from many distinct artistic, historical and cultural vantage-points.

The conference will bring to Michael Longley’s own city of Belfast writers and commentators from different areas of the arts and contemporary culture, for three days of lectures, discussions and poetry.

Keynote lectures/poetry readings will be given by, among others, Simon Armitage, Mark Ford, Jane Hirschfield, Kathleen Jamie, Peter McDonald, Paul Muldoon, and Don Paterson.

A number of events will take place during the conference, including film screenings; an art exhibition devoted to ‘Michael Longley and the Visual Arts’ at the university’s Naughton Gallery; archival displays; and readings of Longley’s own poems.

Each day, academic papers and panel discussions will cover a wide spectrum of approaches to Michael Longley’s writing; to his place in the poetry and culture of his time; and to the various contexts in which he has been read, and will be read in the future. Possible paper and panel themes (comparative papers are also encouraged) may include, but are not limited to: Longley & the Environment, Longley & the Visual Arts, Longley’s influences & Longley as influence, Longley’s Ireland, Longley & Italy, Longley and the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’, Longley & the Classics, Longley as cultural administrator & cultural thinker; the poetry of war & civil war, the aesthetics of poetry from Northern Ireland, relations between poets from Ireland, archipelagic and cross-Atlantic connections, poetic form, poetic genre, the lyric poem today.

Proposals for individual papers, or for panel sessions, are now open, and these should be sent to longleyconference@qub.ac.uk by 31 March 2027. Early submission of proposals is welcome.