Workshop Time

It's that time of year when many people's thoughts turn to workshops and classes and masterclasses and call it what you will. Here are some good ones. Writing the Short Story with Sean O' Reilly Tuesday 4th October 10 weeks €280/€260 Irish Writers Centre A ten-week course for short story writers seeking to develop their craft in the dynamic context of a group. This is a chance to immerse yourself in the issues around the contemporary short story, to focus on producing drafts of new stories and to have your work discussed in detail by other writers Actually that sounds good. I may do that one... Writing Poetry with Peter Sirr Tuesday 4th October 8 weeks €220/€200 Irish Writers Centre This eight week course will explore some of the routes into writing poetry. To get a sense of what's possible, we'll look at examples of poetry from a wide range of poets, as well as considering participants' own work. The course will explore what distinguishes poetry from any other kind of writing and will also suggest ways of getting beyond the personal and anecdotal into more exciting territory. Writing For Children and Teenagers with Sarah Webb Thursday 6th October 6 weeks €165/€150 Irish Writers Centre On this six-week course with Sarah Webb, author of the hugely popular series for young readers Ask Amy Green (as well as adult fiction), you will explore central themes and practices for writers of children's and teenager's fiction. These include focusing on finding the age group that best suits you and your work, as well as learning key skills for editing one's own work. In the second week we will also attend a panel discussion on Writing for Children and Getting Published with thanks to Irish Pen - a top UK agent, Puffin editor, and several writers discuss their work Learning to Write Poetry with Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill Wednesday 12th October 10 weeks €280/€260 Irish Writers Centre Acclaimed Irish language author Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill will give a course on Poetry which will run for ten weeks and is designed to move students from being a secret scribbler to the level where you can get your writing accepted by magazines. Is she doing this in Irish? Beginners' Creative Writing with John Maher Monday 17th October 8 weeks €220/€200 Irish Writers Centre Storytelling is a natural human need both to explain and to entertain; storywriting is an extension of this creative impulse. This creative writing class will look at the short story and the novel formats, in particular. Over the course of the eight weeks, examples of writing will be analysed and participants will produce their own work. All are welcome: those who have already embarked on a writing project, those who have published and those who simply want to 'give it a go' and who haven't written anything so far. Intermediate Creative Writing with Jean O' Brien Wednesday 19th October 8 weeks €220/€200 Irish Writers Centre You've taken your first steps into creative writing; this course will provide you with the skills and confidence to develop your own voice and experiment with a variety of forms and genres. During the eight weeks, you'll examine poetry, poetic form and imagery, novels and short fiction, screenplays, radio plays and scriptwriting. The emphasis will be on generating new work, and finding ways to improve existing work. I've heard that Jean is very encouraging. 'A New Way To Fly': The Stinging Fly's Novel Writing Workshop Beginning Monday 26th September Now in its third year, the 'New Way to Fly' workshop is aimed at writers who are in the early stages of writing a novel and who feel they will benefit from a relationship with a group of others engaged in the same process. Under the direction of acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Sean O'Reilly, the group will meet once a week in a workshop setting over a six-month period. Alongside the workshops, on one Saturday every month, there will be a series of specialist talks on issues around the process of writing and the imagination Fantasy Fiction with Celine Kiernan Sat 8th & Sun 9th October €150/€140 Irish Writers Centre This exciting and intensive two-day course will be ideal for aspiring and and already practising fantasy fiction writers So You Think Your Poem is Finished? with Theo Dorgan Sat 5th November €100/€90 Irish Writers Centre A one day workshop that looks at how to develop an editorial cold heart. Participants are asked to share poems that they think complete. Not work in progress. Finished poems And this one sounds great too. Info for this and others here