Ciaran Carson Conference 2023
This conference and commemoration will celebrate the work of Ciaran Carson, esteemed poet, writer and musician, Professor and founding Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, whose high standards of excellence, and high-spirited blend of local rootedness and global openness (in poet Alan Gillis’s words) he personified. The conference will provide an opportunity for an extended discussion of his contributions to literature, and of his legacy for future generations of poets, critics and general readers.
The conference will deal with all aspects of Carson’s writing, most obviously his poetry, but also his translations, criticism, fiction and non-fiction, on subjects as diverse as music, food, the city, history, memory and violence.
Carson as poet | Carson as critic | Carson and translation | Carson and fiction | Carson and the archive | Carson and the visual arts | Carson and Belfast | Carson and the city | Carson and the dictionary | Carson and music
Prof Alan Gillis
Keynote One: The long and the short of it: Ciaran Carson on the line
Wed 13 Sep
Prof Sinéad Morrissey
Keynote Two: An Asterisk on the Map
Thu 14 Sep
Prof Paul Muldoon
Keynote Three: The Triumph of Ciaran Carson
Fri 15 Sep
We are pleased to have worked with Mel Carroll at UsFolk who produced illustrations for our conference print materials. These are inspired by one the opening of Ciaran Carson's most revered poems 'Belfast Confetti'.
"Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining exclamation marks,
Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type. And the explosion
Itself—an asterisk on the map. "
Delegates have discounted rates at the Holiday Inn (if booked by 16 Aug). Information will be sent to all who register for the conference.
A small number of bursaries are available to those who would otherwise be unable to attend the conference, supporting travel and accommodation for the four days. These are generously supported by British Council International Collaboration Grants. To find out more contact shc@qub.ac.uk
The Conference is hosted by the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University, and organised by a working group made up of faculty members from across the School of Arts, English and Languages.