Monday 10 September 2012

Cork International Short Story Festival

I have never been to this festival.
Not out of choice.
It just always coincides with other stuff.
I've heard loads of good things though.


2012 festival workshops will include several 4-day workshops, running during the day from the 19- 22 September, from 9.30am - 12.30pm. All workshops will run concurrently at a number of venues in Cork City centre, each no more than a ten minute walk from the main festival venue: the Triskel Arts Centre in South Main Street. The exact venue for each workshop will be determined by the number of participants and mobility considerations. Maximum number of participants in each workshop is 15.

Link here

There are still places on the flash fiction workshop.

Flash fiction: the shortest of short stories, the short story distilled to its essence — but also in many ways its own form, one that has been around for decades, with Borges, Kafka, Raymond Carver, Margaret Atwood and Richard Brautigan as some of its many proponents. Sometimes called microfiction, nanofiction, short shorts, ultra-short stories and even prose poems, we will be taking an in-depth look at the what, why, how and who of flash fiction, and embracing brevity ourselves. You will have at least 4 complete flash stories by the end of the week to submit to the many publications and contests that want your flash!

And Contemporary fairytales

This workshop is suitable for any writer who likes fairy tales from any tradition or time, and whether by Oscar Wilde, Angela Carter, the Brothers Grimm or any number of other practitioners around the world. In this workshop you will learn more about fairy-tale techniques. This craft workshop is suitable for writers from published to emerging and new, realist to fabulist, and mainstream to experimental — for fairy tales lend themselves freely to all. Through reading, discussion, and brief writing exercises, we will work with the basic techniques of fairy tales. These include, but are not limited to: flatness, everyday magic, intuitive logic, equivalency, and abstraction. Working from a series of very short traditional tales, you will produce new prose works. This workshop welcomes writers of all styles interested in going under the influence of wonder. Participants will receive a daily handout at each workshop. We will also have an opportunity to look at and discuss the many international journals that publish work that can be considered fairy-tale fiction; we will compare their different editorial lenses with an eye toward making submissions. You will also receive suggested reading lists for further investigation of this brilliant art form.

and Short story for young children

This course may be of interest to writers who have experience of writing for adults, but it is primarily designed for novice writers interested in writing for young audiences. Each day’s work begins with reading a poem together. The idea here is to help students to relax into a writing frame of mind by enjoying a short but complete piece of writing together and to allow them to exchange ideas about a piece of writing for which they are not responsible.

and Story Onto Stage

This workshop is designed for anyone who is interested in looking to prose fiction as a source of material for the stage. You may be a theatre practitioner with a favourite story that you would like to experience in a dramatic form or you may be a short story writer who is interested in examining your own world of concerns from the point of view of theatre. Either way, this workshop could be just the thing for you. If you are a first time writer and are interested in writing a play, the process of adapting a story for the stage is a good introduction to the playwriting process. If you already have experience in another literary form, it provides a great way of giving a whole new take on the literary experience.

And Story Into Song

At my song writing workshops we actually write songs. In the past I have attended a few workshops where the participants play their songs only to be criticised by experts who talk down to them. I was inspired to invent a novel approach, where we all sit down and write a finished song in one session. This teaches many lessons, including finishing things, which is often a big problem for writers. I create a space where all negativity, all criticism and judgement are locked outside. We get down and dirty and write songs. First we write words. Then we assemble them in a certain order, using the tricks of the trade, verse, chorus, repetition, rhyme etc. Then we sing them and we have a song. I try to come behind people and help them lose whatever inhibitions and fears they may have about writing songs. Positivity is the key, and this can be applied to other parts of life also. Anyone who signs up for my song writing workshop should be prepared to sing, it doesn’t matter at all how good or bad a singer you think you are!

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