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The Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Chair of Irish Studies is held in the Spring semester of each academic year by a distinguished Irish writer. Inaugurated in 2000, it has become one of the most prestigious Irish Studies positions in the United States.

The first Heimbold Professor was poet and editor Peter Fallon. To help celebrate the inaugural of the Chair, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney joined Peter Fallon for a joint reading. Since then, the Heimbold Chair has been held by an honor roll of Irish writers.

Normally, the Heimbold Professor teaches two undergraduate seminar courses, on in Creative Writing and one in Irish Literature, allowing Irish Studies students to have the enriching experience of a close classroom experience with Ireland's finest voices.

Past Heimbold Chairs

  • Peter Fallon
  • Nuala NiDhomhnaill
  • Eamon Greenan
  • Marina Carr
  • Vona Groarke
  • Conor O'Callaghan
  • Michael Coady
  • Sebastian Barry
  • Justin Quinn

 

Current Heimbold Chair

Claire Keegan is an Irish short stories writer. She was born in Co Wicklow in 1968, the youngest of a large Roman Catholic family. She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was seventeen and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University. She returned to Ireland in 1992 and lived for a year in Cardiff, Wales, where she undertook an MA in creative writing and taught undergraduates at the University of Wales. Her first collection of short stories was Antarctica (1998). Her another collections of stories are Arrows in Flight (2002) and Walk the Blue Fields (2007). She won the William Trevor Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Olive Cook Award.

Keegan lives in rural Ireland.