If putting pen to paper is more your style, we are holding a Publishing Day
with the University
of Limerick where writers of all genres and forms
can learn how to be published.
Hone your writing skills with
some courses from the IWC autumn programme.
Making the Murderer: If writing crime is
your passion then lock yourself in with Louise Phillips
and learn how to develop a thriller that will have you on the edge
of your seat using tension and effective dialogue. Starts: Thurs
29 Sept (10 weeks)
Screenwriting:Dreaming of writing for
the silver screen? Discover the ins and outs of screenwriting with Mark O'Connor
including master plots, the logline and scene breakdowns. Starts: Mon 3
Oct (8 weeks)
Confessional Writing: Listen
as Róisín
Agnew tells all in this exploration of
confessional writing and its various forms. Starts: Sat 8 Oct (one day)
Feature Writing: Transform
your writing abilities as the basics of feature writing is explored
in this 6 week course, including sourcing ideas and tailoring your
writing to different publications. Starts: Wed 26
Oct (6 weeks)
I'll be teaching a poetry workshop as part of the Kildare Readers Festival this Saturday October 1st at 2.30pm in Maynooth Library.
It's free. Please sign up if you like to come along. It should be fun.
“Poetry's oldest duty is preservation. The life we live eludes us as we live it, and when we are old we cannot credit what we have lost -- measured by the fragments that we keep…Because our civilization loves speed, change, loss, and forgetfulness, a poet's obligation is also a poet's opportunity -- to hold and keep, to make a stillness despite noise -- to praise, to celebrate, and to enact endurance. - Donald Hall”
This workshop is for anyone who would like to begin to write poetry or for those who already have some memories captured on paper. It will be a safe, supporting environment so you can leave with the draft of at least one piece of writing with energy and confidence.
And share with anyone you think may be interested.
There are lots of other events in the coming fortnight, mostly around Riverbank in Newbridge. See the online brochure here or download the brochure here
All events are FREE of charge, but are ticketed, so booking is
essential.
I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of the poet Shirley McClure. I was lucky enough to know her and interviewed her last year. In a tribute to her warmth and wit, I'm republishing the interview. My condolences her family and her many friends. Now go off and read her poems.
Hi Shirley and welcome to emergingwriter. I enjoyed the launch recently of your new poetry collection, Stone Dress and I devoured the book on the way home.
First question. How did you first get into poetry?
The poems I wrote as a child bear a strong metrical resemblance to the hymns we sang in St Patrick's Presbyterian church in Waterford. I think that was my most likely influence, although we did read, and hear poetry read aloud at home. My mother was a primary school teacher and made sure we read more than Enid Blyton. In return I gave her carefully bound editions of 'My Poems'. This is beginning to remind me of Billy Collins' 'The Lanyard'...
Billy Collins - The Lanyard.
Does the carefully bound edition of “My Poems” still survive?
Probably, I shall look.
Would you want to go back and read your childhood poems? Have you? I’m not sure I would. In my memory they are brilliant, but probably with my world weary eye now they would appear less shiny.
I found my old poems!
But I am more amused by these than anything.
Did you continue writing through adolescence and on to early adulthood? How did school affect that?
I continued writing whilst at school, devoured the poetry sections of English text books and wrote for the school magazine. Teachers encouraged my writing. A couple of friends tried putting my poems to music, strumming away on their guitars on summer afternoons by the school pond. (Winter afternoons on their dorm beds?) Leslie Dowdall came to our school in fifth year, and did me the honour of singing one of my poem/songs at a school concert. (Already we could see she was good).
In college I did English & Spanish, read a lot and still wrote a bit, but it all kind of fizzled out as the years went by, with a kind of small revival when I got to forty.
Do you remember your first published poem as an adult?
Getting published is always a thrill! Although one of my poems appeared in our college magazine, Icarus(1982), and a translation of mine from Spanish to English showed up in Poetry Ireland Review, I think I was most excited when in 1992, after a long 'sleep', one of my poems was selected to appear in Women's Work, an anthology of poems brought out by a Wexford-based community arts group. We were invited to read our poems, and my partner and I went to Wexford for the night. There I tasted the thrill of reading 'live', a pleasure I rediscovered fifteen years later after another long pause in my writing career. I remember the night so well, and the excitement of meeting other women who wrote. It makes me wonder why I stopped writing, or why I wrote so little really between the ages of 20 and 40. I suppose I was doing other things. Once I got into writing proper, I discovered the equally strong emotion of disappointment each time poems were rejected. Not funny.
So there’s hope for every lapsed writer! What brought you back into poetry, do you think?
A friend threw a 40th birthday party for me, where people performed and sang. Very enjoyable, except that they had dug out a few of my old poems and these were read, to my deep embarrassment! It made me think, though, and soon afterwards I attended a weekend writing workshop which really inspired me. At another workshop I met James Conway, who runs Rathmines Writers' Workshop, a long-standing group which meets weekly. I joined the group and the challenge to produce a new poem every week got me going. I would encourage anybody who is starting out or re-starting to attend courses/workshops, and to join a group where you get helpful feedback. Since then I have always been part of a work-shopping group: I spent about 5 years each in Rathmines and then Airfield Writers, then set up a small peer group with my friend Jane Clarke and three others. The group keeps my focus whenever I lose it. We do 2 poems each and stick to a strictish half hour per person arrangement, after which we all need to go home! How did your first poetry collection come about?
I was preparing my first manuscript to send out when I saw an ad for the Cork Literary Review/ Bradshaw Books manuscript competition. So I sent my collection,Whose Counting there and was very lucky to win in 2009. Tina Pisco was writer in residence at Tigh Fili/ Bradshaw Books at that time, and she and Maura Bradshaw were very encouraging to me in getting the book out. They got me down to Cork to do a few readings which was a big help.
And what about your most recent collection?
Bradshaw Books encouraged me to move on as they prefer to publish new writers, so for my second collection I did have to decide where best to send my work. Again I was lucky in that Arlen House does not accept unsolicited manuscripts, but a fellow writer who knew my work suggested they have a look at it. Alan Hayes and I exchanged edited versions of the manuscript and met to agree on final changes. He pointed out that I am over-fond of italics, so I will watch out for that in future! Apart from that, we tended to be in agreement about the changes to be made, so it progressed quickly. The book was launched in Dublin in July, and I'll be taking it on tour from next week (Kilkenny on 27th August) with Jane Clarke, who is promoting her new book, The River.
What do you have coming up?
Stone House Books, Kilkenny The Kilkenny launch of Spanish Affair and Jane Clarke'sThe Riveris inStone House Books on Thursday 27th August at 7pm. Music by Eamon Sweeney, whose Spanishguitar is featured on the CDSpanish Affair.
Café Fusion, Wexford Shirley and Jane read at Café Fusion on Friday 4th September at 8pm.
Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely, Co. Wicklow Shirley McClure, Jane Clarke, and classical guitarist, Eamon Sweeny, will give a performance of poetry and music on Thursday 24th September at 8.30pm.
Bray Arts, Bray A performance of poetry and music from Spanish Affair with Eamon Sweeney, Katie Donovan,Jane Clarke, Lizzy Morrissey and Shirley McClure, Monday 5th October at the Martello Hotel,Strand Road, Bray. 8 pm.
No Alibis Bookshop, Belfast
Poet Paula Cunningham will launch Jane Clarke's The River & Shirley McClure's Stone Dress on Thursday, October 8th at 6.30 pm.
Imagine Festival, Waterford A reading by Shirley McClure and Jane Clarke at Waterford Book Centre, as part of the Imagine Festival. 3 pm on Sunday 25th October.
Books Upstairs Cafe & Bookshop, Dublin
A reading by poets Paula Cunningham, Rosy Shepperd, Jane Clarke & Shirley McClure on Thursday 26th November at 7 pm.
Thanks Shirley. Good luck with your upcoming readings with Jane. Here’s a poem from Shirley’s second collection, Stone Dress published by Arlen House, available to buy online from Kenny’s bookshop.
Groomed
Today she has been clipped, primped, squeezed,
handed back with a pink bow, she's a smooth black angel
beneath whose sleek chops, butter wouldn't melt.
Tonight is warm, the garden wild with possibility.
Suddenly the bellows of her belly surge, her body spasms
to expel the rare meat struggling in her mouth.
On the grass the hedgehog still breathes, but somehow
she has opened him, got right in without incurring
a single spine on her perfectly barbered snout.
Bio: Shirley McClure's new collection, 'Stone Dress', is published by Arlen House in August 2015. Her CD Spanish Affair, with her own poems plus poetry and music from invited guests, was launched in June. All proceeds from the CD go to Arklow Cancer Support Group, where she facilitates a writers' group. Her first poetry collection, Who's Counting? (Bradshaw Books) won Cork Literary Review's ManuscriptCompetition 2009. She won Listowel Writers' Week Originals Poetry Competition 2014. Shirley lives in Bray, Co. Wicklow. Shirley’s website is here: www.thepoetryvein.com
Poems: Please submit a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 10 pieces of work, ensure that you have
edited and formatted as you wish to see your work published
Fiction: The Blue Nib will publish new fiction of up to 10,000 words, please submit no more than one piece at a time. Short Stories: Please submit a minimum of three and a maximum of 5 pieces of work, please ensure
the work has been edited and that spelling and grammar have been checked.
Essays: original essays of no more than 5000 words.
The following contests are also open and finalists in each category will be included in the Winter Anthology which will be published on-line and as a download in December 2016
International Original Fiction Contest. €250.00 Prize Fund
The contest is open to original fiction of no more than 12,000 words
International Essay Contest. €150.00 Prize Fund
The contest is open to original essays of no more than 2000 words
International Short Story Contest. €150.00 Prize Fund
The contest is open to original short stories of no more than 3500 words
International Poetry Contest. €150.00 Prize Fund
The contest is open to poetry in all forms other than extreme brevity
All Open to all writers over the age of 18 years as at 1st November 2016
The Caterpillar magazine prize is open . They say:
Last year’s inaugural winner, Richard J. Jones, received €1,000 for his story 'Let's Say I Am', which was published in the winter issue of The Caterpillar. You can also read it in the Irish Times.
This year, we’ve decided to share the love, and to that end we have three prizes:
1st prize €500 plus a 2-week stay at The Moth’s Artists’ Residence
2nd prize €300
3rd prize €200
All three winning stories will appear in the winter 2016 issue of The Caterpillar.
We're also very excited to announce that the fabulously talented and award-winning author of The Jam Doughnut that Ruined My Life, Pants are Everything and Socks are Not Enough, Mark Lowery, will be judging this year's prize.
All you need do to apply is send us your original, unpublished story of no more than 1,500 words – on any theme or subject, as long as it is appropriate for 7–11 year olds.
You can ENTER ONLINE or download an ENTRY FORM and send it along with your story to: The Caterpillar, Ardan Grange, Milltown, Belturbet, Co. Cavan, Ireland
The entry fee is €12 per story, and you can enter as many stories as you like.
Stanzas also do chapbooks, more experimental than many. They say
"Our Chapbooks this month are going to be a little different. We're taking the idea of Washed Up to its logical extreme and are literally going to make it look washed up!
"So to be a part of this mad endeavour, send your poetry, prose or artwork to stanzas.limerick@gmail.com.
Download your copy of my new ebook for only $2.99 at Amazon
for your Kindle or at Smashwords (25% sample to read for free) Review: I was instantly drawn into this book...
Tweet or Email me if you're want to talk about a reading/gig/festival/workshop, a review on my blog or basically anything you want to give me for free (money works too) at
