The Ciaran Carson Writing and the City Fellowship has been established in memory of Ciaran Carson, Founding Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, and is inspired by his writing about the city of Belfast in poetry and prose. The Publishing Fellowship is offered to a graduate who has demonstrated an enthusiastic commitment to the wider literary sector, particularly through publishing. 

The Fellowships are worth £10,000 per annum for a recently completed PhD graduate from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, and Fellows are encouraged to carry on with their own creative work, and to contribute to the academic and extracurricular programmes of the Centre. 

Sharon Dempsey is the author of three crime novels, Little Bird (Bloodhound, 2017), Who Took Eden Mulligan? (Harper Collins Avon, 2021), The Midnight Killing (Harper Collins Avon, 2022) and two novellas. She graduated with a creative writing doctorate from Queen’s in 2023. Sharon has a background in journalism and health writing and has written for a variety of publications and newspapers, including the Irish Times. She also has experience facilitating creative writing classes for people affected by cancer and other health challenges. Sharon has also published three non-fiction books and has many short stories published in anthologies, literary journals, magazines and broadcast on radio. 

Speaking of her appointment, Sharon commented: “I am thrilled to be named as a Ciaran Carson Fellow and hope to be a valuable contributor to the creative environment of the Seamus Heaney Centre. My time spent at Queen’s, first as an undergraduate and then later, undertaking my PhD, has been important to me both personally and professionally. 

“Ciaran Carson means so much to writers from the north of Ireland and beyond, and it is an honour and a privilege to undertake work in his name. I am looking forward to working with our students and carrying forward Ciaran’s ethos of creating work from this place and of this place.” 

Charles Lang is from Glasgow. He studied as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh and then completed an MA and PhD at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s. His poems have appeared in Gutter, Magma, Poetry Ireland Review, The Poetry Review, The Scotsman, The Stinging Fly, and elsewhere. A pamphlet Aye ok was published by Speculative Books in 2020. An interdisciplinary digital portfolio As If was published by Fallow Media in 2021. He is currently working on his first collection. 

Charles said: “It was Ciaran Carson’s work that first brought me to Belfast and made me want to write. His workshops were something I treasured and I carry his advice – poetic and otherwise – with me every day. To take up this fellowship in his name means the world to me. I hope to spend time encouraging new writers in and around the SHC, alongside putting together a collection, and most importantly finding space to keep at the writing!” 

Mícheál McCann is a poet from Derry City. His poems have appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The Poetry Review, Queering the Green and elsewhere. He is the author of Safe Home (Green Bottle Press, 2020), Keeper (Fourteen Publishing, 2022) and Waking Light (Skein Press, 2022) alongside Kerri ní Dochartaigh. He is the co-editor of Hold Open the Door (UCD Press, 2020), Trumpet (Poetry Ireland, 2020), the founding editor of catflap, and will be the editor of Poetry Ireland Review in summer 2024. His first collection of poems, Devotion, is forthcoming with The Gallery Press in May 2024.  

Mícheál commented: “I’m so deeply honoured to be the Seamus Heaney Centre Publishing Fellow for 2024. I’m looking forward to spending time with the literary community in the Heaney Centre and beyond, forging new opportunities for people to gather and discuss work (and publishing that work), and also to working editorially with the Seamus Heaney Centre community as they approach pamphlet & collection publication. I’m doubly honoured that this fellowship is made possible by the legacy of Ciaran Carson, who I was fortunate to be taught by for a while, so I’m very moved and grateful to be given this opportunity.” 

Welcoming the new Fellows Professor Glenn Patterson, Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s said: “What a pleasure it is to be able to announce these new fellows, writers already of originality and distinction whose experience, expertise and enthusiasm will benefit all those fortunate enough to work with them, inside the university and out. As the Seamus Heaney Centre prepares to move to its new home, the opportunity for collaboration and engagement is set to grow, along with the number of students participating in our programmes and activities. Twenty-twenty-four promises to be a great year, and welcoming Sharon Dempsey, Charles Lang and Mícheál McCann is a great way to be starting it.” 

The Fellowships support writers at this critical point in their career, giving them professional experience in the literary and academic sector, and allowing the University to maintain relationships with our extraordinary alumni. 

Fellows, working in all forms of creative writing, contribute to life at the Seamus Heaney Centre through masterclasses, workshops, one-to-one tutorials, and performances, and bring new voices to the academic and public arena.