Faber to publish collection of Seamus Heaney’s complete works

London publishing house Faber have announced a publication of the complete works of Derry-born poet Seamus Heaney.

The Poems of Seamus Heaney, edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue with Matthew Hollis, is set to launch on October 9 this year.

The collection will feature all of Heaney’s published poetry, from both his own books and those in journals or magazines. It will also include as yet unreleased works.

“It would be hard to overstate the importance of this moment for our family,” says Catherine Heaney. “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.”

A reissue of Heaney’s 1975 collection, North, is planned to release on June 19 to mark its 50th anniversary. This was the first of Heaney’s works which dealt directly with the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Heaney published his first collection of poems, Death of a Naturalist, in 1966. He continued to write throughout his life, earning a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995.

He died in 2013, and is considered among the greatest poets of his time.

“Seamus Heaney’s unparalleled career exemplifies what it means for a poet to keep testing truths from the personal to the global, the political and the metaphysical,” says Faber’s Poetry Editor, Lavinia Greenlaw. “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.”