Seamus Heaney and Influences That Matter with John McAuliffe 9/9/26

Seamus Heaney wrote extensively about the poets and poems that mattered to him. This session will look at how this shaped his poetry; and we will also look at the poems of those he influenced in turn. As well as discussing Heaney's work, the session will ask how his influences might take on new forms in how we write now.

Heaney is perhaps one of the most loved and greatest poets in recent times. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1995) and is cited by many poets as a towering inspiration and influence. His poetry has intimate and vivid lyrical beauty and exactness, rooted in culture, history and nature with ethical courage and compassion.

We will be writing during the workshop inspired by the great Heaney under the guidance of fellow Irish poet John McAuliffe.

Irish poet, John McAuliffe has published seven books with The Gallery Press, including National Theatre, which was an Observer and Irish Times 'Book of the Year' in 2024, The Kabul Olympics, which was a Guardian Poetry Book of the Month in June 2020 and a TLS and Irish Times 2020 Book of the Year, and The Way In (2015), which won the Michael Hartnett Award for Best Irish Collection that year. His Selected Poems was published in the US by Wake Forest in 2024. John is Professor of Poetry at the University of Manchester and Associate Publisher at Carcanet. He also works as a reviewer, editor and translator. He wrote a monthly poetry column for the Irish Times from 2013-2020, and now co-edits the leading UK poetry journal PN Review . His versions of the Bosnian poet Igor Klikovac, Stockholm Syndrome (Smith Doorstop), was a Poetry Book Society Winter Pamphlet Choice in 2019, and his work as anthologist includes a selection of Austin Clarke's poems (2026), Carcanet's New Poetries VIII (2021) and Everything to Play For: 99 Poems About Sport (Poetry Ireland, 2015).

2.5 hours long

Start time: 10am UK time // 5pm Perth Australia // 6.30pm Adelaide & Darwin // 7pm Brisbane, Sydney, AEST // 9pm NZ  

Advertised times on this site are in London, UK Timezone, but when you add the event to your calendar it should be correct for your local time zone.

You can check your timezone against London UK time here: https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Cost £30 GBP (with cost effective exchange via STRIPE)

Zoom link and materials will be sent by email at least 2 days prior. If you don’t receive it get in touch with me.

More events here https://www.cathdrake.com

This event will be recorded. Our workshops are intended as live and interactive. However, there are a small number of tickets for those keen to come, but who cannot make the date of this workshop that are 'recording only' tickets to be purchased in advance ONLY for those who can't make the date. If you buy a live ticket and don't turn up on the day, you can't access the recording – sorry, it's not a fall back. You need to buy a live OR recorded ticket. This is because we primarily want poets to come and participate in live workshops. 'Recording only' tickets allow access to listen to a recording of the workshop during the 3 weeks following the workshop. (Note that we may share the recording at a future time to new participants.)