Michael Longley discusses his most recent publication, The Candlelight Master (2020), in conversation with Anne Morrison. 

About Michael Longley: born in Belfast, Michael Longley, the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of 12 collections of poetry, has been a central figure in the poetry of Northern Ireland since the 1960s. From his first collection, No Continuing City: Poems 1963-1968 (1969) to his most recent publication, The Candlelight Master (2020), he has received numerous awards for his work. 

These include the Whitbread Poetry Prize (1991), the American Ireland Fund Literary Award (1996), the T.S. Eliot Prize (2000), the Hawthornden Prize (2000), the Wilfred Owen Award (2003), the Irish Times Poetry Now Award (2012), the Griffin International Prize (2015), the PEN Pinter Prize (2017) and the inaugural Yakamochi Medal (2018)

Other major achievements include the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry (2001), a CBE award (2010), and from 2007 to 2010 Michael was Ireland Professor of Poetry. In 2015 he was made a Freeman of the City of Belfast, and in the same year he received the Ulster Tatler Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of Aosdana.

Michael has also written widely on the arts in Northern Ireland.  He and his wife, the critic Edna Longley, live and work in Belfast.

About Anne Morrison: Anne has a long and distinguished career as a television executive and producer in documentaries and other factual programmes. She is currently Creative Director, Factual at Nevision production company, having held senior roles in the BBC for many years. She was Chair of BAFTA and founded the BBC Academy. In 2018, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Nottingham Trent University for services to broadcasting and the arts. She was born and brought up in Belfast and now lives in London.