Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, who passed away on August 30 at the age of 74, will be remembered at a host of readings and commemorations throughout November.
On November 11, poets Frank Bidart, Sven Birkerts, Eavan Boland, Lucie Brock-Broido, Greg Delanty, Jonathan Galassi, Eamon Grennan, Edward Hirsch, Jane Hirshfield, Yusef Komunyakaa, Paul Muldoon, Atsuro Riley, Tom Sleigh, Tracy K. Smith, Jean Valentine, Anne Waldman, and Kevin Young, and novelist Colm Tóibín will gather at Cooper Union to pay public tribute to the late poet. Each writer will read a favorite poem of Heaney's, and singer Paul Simon will also make a guest appearance.
On November 15, Irish Arts Center and St. Ann's Warehouse will be presenting "Favorite Poems-In Tribute to Seamus Heaney" as a part of IAC's fifth annual PoetryFest. Participants include actor Gabriel Byrne, playwright Enda Walsh, authors Alice McDermott and Colum McCann, and poets Colette Bryce, Henri Cole, Mark Doty, Paul Muldoon, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Nick Laird, Conor O'Callaghan, Meghan O'Rourke, Brenda Shaughnessy, Matthew Sweeney, and PW's Craig Morgan Teicher.
In addition, the Irish Repertory Theater in Manhattan will host a celebration of Heaney on November 4. Harvard University, where Heaney was a longtime professor, will commemorate the poet on November 7 at Memorial Church in Cambridge, Mass.
