Seamus Heaney was born on 13 April 1939 in County Derry, Northern Ireland. His first collection, Death of a Naturalist (Faber & Faber), was published in 1965, and was followed by nearly 100 books, including District and Circle (Faber & Faber), which won the T. S. Eliot Prize 2006; he was shortlisted for the Eliot Prize in 1996 for The Spirit Level, in 2001 for Electric Light and in 2010 for Human Chain. Human Chain won the 2010 Forward Prize for Best Collection. Heaney was Oxford University Professor of Poetry from 1989 to 1994, and in 1995 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Widely recognized as one of the most significant poets of the twentieth century, Seamus Heaney died, aged 74, on 30 August 2013. His translation of Virgil’s Aeneid Book VI was published posthumously in 2016 to critical acclaim, followed in 2018 by 100 Poems, a selection of poems from his entire career, chosen by his family. Author photo © John Minihan
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