Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) was an Irish playright, poet, translator, and lecturer, widely recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century. His poetry collections include Human Chain (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010), District and Circle (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006), and Opened Ground (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999). His translation of Beowulf (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000) won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, and taught at Harvard University in the 1980s.