"Those of you in search of a book that will tell you what Seamus Heaney [was] all about need look no further. Bringing together studies over the past fifteen years, Russell embeds the poet who attained rock-star notoriety and the Nobel Prize in the context of the conquered and economically suppressed Catholic population of Northern Ireland and Ulster in particular. [Heaney] managed to 'cross over,' attain a first-rate education at Queen's University, Belfast, and with it an expertise in drama, poetry, and cultural studies that allowed him to socialize smoothly with the cream of the established and 'entitled' Anglo-Irish settler class. . . . Russell demonstrates that the most powerful wing in British poetry since the Romantics Byron, Wordsworth, Keats, etc., has been regionalism. . . . Russell discusses thoroughly Heaney's engagement with each of his significant predecessors and contemporaries and gives extended commentaries on each of his works, retrieving early radio dramas, uncollected poems, and first drafts of important works." -Heythrop Journal
"Richard Rankin Russell's Seamus Heaney's Regions is a major and original contribution; it is hard to think of another critical work on Heaney that is so complete in its coverage, from the earliest activities to Human Chain. Russell is extremely well-versed in Heaney's writings and extends his analysis beyond the usual concentration on the poetry to bring in the crucial prose and dramatic works, including the early, largely forgotten items. The breadth of his approach makes his book of interest to scholars in such neighboring fields as social geography, history, and theology as well as contemporary literature." -- Bernard O'Donoghue, Wadham College, University of Oxford
"The book is impressive for its knowledge not just of Heaney's work, but [also] of the awesome amount of scholarship that Heaney's work has generated. By focusing on the regional, Russell achieves a task similar to that of its subject 'the writer,' wrote Heaney, 'must re-envisage the region as the original point.'" -- The Year's Work in English Studies
". . . Seamus Heaney's Regions is a welcome and vital contribution to what is now a very populated field, a field that can and should be called Heaney Studies. While at this stage no single critical volume can be transformative of how Heaney's work is read and considered for years to come, in its exploration of the poet's regionalism Russell's astute, readable, and insightful book provides an important, clarifying vantage from which to view Seamus Heaney's remarkable achievement." -- Irish Literary Supplement
"Seamus Heaney's Regions radically transforms our understanding of the poet's sense of place, his political consciousness, and his visionary art. Drawing on a wealth of knowledge and extensive archival research, Richard Rankin Russell offers us a superb account of Seamus Heaney as a global regionalist, a poet whose localities extend beyond the national to the spiritual. Thoughtfully attentive to the cultural contours of the writings and sensitively attuned to their formal and stylistic qualities, this is a book that will shape and inform our appreciation of Heaney's poetic achievements for years to come." -- Stephen Regan, Durham University
". . . Russell's new book provides an extensive study of regionalism in Heaney's poetry and prose. Russell provides a broad view of current perceptions of Heaney's work and a history of regionalism in Northern Ireland . . . . Especially valuable for the close reading of Heaney's oeuvre in support of the focus on sense of place, the book is a valuable resource for Irish studies." -- Choice
"Seamus Heaney's Regions will be welcomed by the many students and scholars who study Heaney, but also by those interested in the turbulent post-World War II period in Northern Ireland. Since Heaney is one of the best known contemporary poets, Russell's book should appeal to a wide audience. Russell gives readers an overview of Heaney's career. Unlike some studies of Heaney, Russell's Regions includes many insightful commentaries on his essays and translations." -- Henry Hart, Mildred and J.B. Hickman Professor of English and Humanities, The College of William and Mary
"This book is a sustained, well-drawn and nuanced argument that takes the region as an alembic through which to look awry at Heaney's work. This book is structured like a Prezi presentation, as there is a chronology at work, but what Russell does is to offer an overview and then zoom in on a specific area to illustrate his point . . . a significant addition to the Heaney critical canon." -- Irish Studies Review
"This is a scholarly and accessible exploration of regionalism in the writing of Seamus Heaney from one of the most insightful readers of his work . . . . Russell's book is full of such information and is a significant and original addition to the critical work on Seamus Heaney." -- SHARP News
