Lenoir-Rhyne University

Marie and Catherine Heaney are the wife and daughter respectively of the late Seamus Heaney, a Nobel Prize for Literature award recipient. Both are dedicated to preserving and promoting the work and legacy of Seamus Heaney.

Traditional Irish songs will be played by Martha Geouge Hill, a harpist for the Blue Mountain Harpers Society in Asheville, and Stone’s Throw, a local Celtic quartet. Hill was awarded the 2017 Clan Donald Land Trust’s Princess Margaret of the Isles Memorial Prize for best senior harper at the Scotland County Highland Games in October 2017. Marie Heaney will read poems during musical interludes.

Marie Heaney has written numerous books including the highly-acclaimed, Over Nine Waves: A Book of Irish Legends. She wrote and illustrated a children’s book on the same topic titled, The Names Upon the Harp. Marie Heaney has edited several anthologies, including Heart’s Mysteries: 50 Poems from Ireland to Touch the Soul and A Sunday Miscellany. Her most recent anthology, All Through the Night: Night Poems & Lullabies, was published in 2016. The book was written in memory of Seamus Heaney, whose favorite song was Johannes Brahms, “Lullaby,” and was dedicated to their three grandchildren, Anna Rose, Aibhín, and Síofra.

Catherine Heaney received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Trinity College Dublin. She works as a freelance writer and editor, most recently editing a volume of essays, Trinity Tales, published by The Lilliput Press in 2016. She is a director of the Seamus Heaney Estate and works with publishers and various institutions to continue promoting his works around the world.