Faber to publish The Poems of Seamus Heaney
Faber is delighted to announce the publication of The Poems of Seamus Heaney, edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue with Matthew Hollis.
This is the long-awaited, definitive edition of Seamus Heaney’s poetry, featuring a number of previously unpublished poems from the Nobel Prize-winning poet. The volume will be published on 9 October 2025. Faber holds world rights excluding US for the publication.
The Poems of Seamus Heaney encompasses all the poems Heaney published in his lifetime as well as the small number that appeared after his death: twelve single volumes, from Death of a Naturalist (1966) to Human Chain (2010), and those poems published in pamphlets, journals or magazines with limited circulation. In addition, the book includes a selection of previously unpublished material.
It is a body of work that, in its entirety, resounds with the ‘lyrical beauty and ethical depth’ cited by the Nobel committee: poems ‘which exalt everyday miracles and the living past’.
Critical introductions to each collection and notes that illuminate the history and development of the poems make this the essential volume for admirers of Heaney’s work.
In advance of The Poems, Faber is also set to mark the fiftieth anniversary of North with a reissued edition of the collection in hardback on 19 June 2025, reproduced in its elegant original typeface and jacket.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Catherine Heaney says:
It would be hard to overstate the importance of this moment for our family: The Poems of Seamus Heaney marks the pinnacle of an exciting and ambitious publishing programme, undertaken with Faber over the past decade. This edition will allow readers to see the full arc of my father’s poetic life, with introductions and notes that illuminate each collection, as well as uncollected poems from throughout his career. We are indebted to our brilliant editors – Bernard O’Donoghue and Rosie Lavan, with Matthew Hollis – whose years of meticulous scholarly work have culminated in this magnificent volume. We couldn’t be more proud of it.
Lavinia Greenlaw, Poetry Editor at Faber, says:
Seamus Heaney’s unparalleled career exemplifies what it means for a poet to keep testing truths from the personal to the global, the political to the metaphysical. Heaney was also dedicated to his art and we can see here how he continued to explore the possibilities of his craft to electrifying effect. We are delighted and proud to be presenting this long-awaited edition: a drawing together of a body of work that through its originality, vitality and power to move us, continues to exert the most profound influence.
Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 in County Derry in Northern Ireland. Death of a Naturalist, his first book, appeared in 1966 and was followed by poetry, criticism and translations which established him as the leading poet of his generation. In 1995, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Rosie Lavan is Associate Professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin. She is author of Seamus Heaney and Society (2020).
Bernard O’Donoghue is an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. His seventh collection of poetry, The Anchorage, will be published in 2025.
Matthew Hollis is a poet, editor and biographer. He is the author of Earth House, a collection of poems, published in 2023.
Buy the Book
Here is the definitive edition of Seamus Heaney’s poetry, with illuminating critical notes, including a substantial number of uncollected poems and a selection of some poems never before published.