Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." From his debut collection of poems, Death of a Naturalist (1966) to his most recent, widely-praised volume District and Circle (2006), and through such prose works as Preoccupations (1980) and The Redress of Poetry (1995) he has both explored, with remarkable consistency, his own poetic landscape and concerns, and has been unfailingly generous and responsive to the work of other poets.

"[O]ne of the age's finest poet-naturalists" – The Irish Times

"Anyone who reads poetry has reason to rejoice at living in the age when Seamus Heaney is writing." - The New York Times Book Review

Rutger Kopland
Rutger Kopland (born 1934) is the pseudonym of R.H. van den Hoofdakker, a retired psychiatrist and university lecturer who lives in Glimmen, The Netherlands. He worked in the field of biological psychiatry, both as a scientist and as a practitioner, studying the significance of sleep. He has published thirteen collections of poetry, as well as literary essays, and Two Crafts: On Psychiatry and Poetry (2003). To coincide with his appearance at the Dublin Writers Festival, Waxwing has recently published a new selection of his poems, in English translation by Willem Groenewegen, entitled What Water Left Behind (2006).

"One wonders how long it will take the Nobel Prize committee to consider Rutger Kopland, clearly an exceptionally gifted poet, and a very proper focus for their deliberations." - Poetry Nation Review