ABOUT THE WRITERS
JOYCE RUSSELL
Joyce Russell is a journalist and writer. Born in England she settled
in West Cork more than thirty years ago and started writing short
stories a decade ago. Her stories have won many prizes including the
RTÉ Francis MacManus Short Story Award, the Séan Ó Faoláin
Short Story Prize, the START Chapbook Prize and the Real Writers
Short Story Award. Stories have been included in several anthologies
and have been broadcast on radio. Bloodlines is her first published
short story collection and is published by the Mercier Press. Joyce
Russell is the incoming fiction editor at Southword Journal.
THOMAS McCARTHY
Originally from Cappoquin, Co. Waterford, Thomas McCarthy now
lives in Cork. He studied at UCC under the influence of Sean Lucey
and John Montague; Sean Dunne and Theo Dorgan were fellow
students. He received the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 1997 for his first
book and the American-Irish Foundation’s Literary Award in 1984.
His work includes Mr Dineen’s Careful Parade (Anvil, 1999) and Merchant
Prince (Anvil, 2005). In 2009, Anvil Press published McCarthy’s The
Last Geraldine Officer. His historical work on the burning of Cork’s
Carnegie Library and the rebuilding of its collections, Rising from the
Ashes, appeared in 2010. Thomas McCarthy is the incoming poetry
editor at Southword Journal.
MUNSTER LITERATURE CENTRE
presents
AUTUMN 2012
WRITING WORKSHOPS
Fiction Workshop with Joyce Russell
Poetry Workshop with Thomas McCarthy
Workshops begin Mid-October.
THE MUNSTER LITERATURE CENTRE
FRANK O’CONNOR HOUSE
84 DOUGLAS STREET
CORK
IRELAND
(021) 431 2955, [email protected]
WWW.MUNSTERLIT.IE
Fiction Workshop with Joyce Russell
Poetry Workshop with Thomas McCarthy
Crafting Short Stories: a six-week course. Classes designed to get beginners going and ‘stuck
writers’ moving again. There will be plenty of unusual writing exercises and techniques, cooperation
with other writers in the group and the support to empower writers to get what they need from the
class. The core issues of structure, character, plot, etc., will all be covered and there will be help for
each writer to discover their ‘voice’. The aim is to achieve a relaxed and creative environment where a
common interest in writers, writing and how to move on to the next level can be explored. There will
be opportunities to look at the work of published writers and participants will be encouraged to
write in each class. A handout in preparation for the next class will be provided each evening.
1. How to Write Like Somebody Else. In this workshop we will examine elements of a personal style. We
will look at the work of poets like Theodore Roethke, John Montague and Matthew Sweeney to see how
style is either spontaneously arrived upon or worked through relentlessly over years. A brief exercise will be
required of each workshop participant here. The second hour of the workshop will deal with participants’
own work.
Evening 1: Why We Write. A series of cooperative and trust-building exercises designed to determine
where each person is at and what they want to get from the class. Building on strengths and working
on weaknesses. Getting started: the importance of the opening paragraph. Examples will be provided
for discussion. Get the hand moving: writing time. Reading aloud and constructive suggestions are
encouraged in each class, within agreed limits.
Evening 2: Unleashing the Creative. Bring an open mind and a pen and paper (or a laptop if that
suits you best). Exercises will help to clear the mind, focus on the job in hand, generate ideas and
generally get everyone writing. Where we write. Techniques to stop avoidance tactics. How to start
something new. How to maintain the momentum. Writing exercises and reading aloud.
Evening 3: Style and Structure. Discussion: ‘Do we seek to imitate writers that we admire, or do we
follow our own unique voice?’ What makes a story work? Looking at styles, voice, dramatic conflict,
the twist, etc. Word use: expanding descriptive vocabulary and looking at use of adverbs, adjectives,
etc. Creating the links: looking at how a story gets a consistent theme. The pros and cons of writing
to a formula and examples of such methods. Writing exercises to explore the above.
Evening 4: Character and Dialogue. Characters can be drawn from real life, they can be entirely
fictional, or they can be a mix of the two. Discussion of stories that are driven by character. Character
as a starting-point. Getting into the head of a character. Writing exercises and techniques to help
develop and create fictional characters. Exploring dialogue within the group. How to make dialogue
authentic on the page.
Evening 5: Plot. Discussion of stories that are driven by plot. Plot as a starting-point. Drafting the
plot before starting to write. Combining structure, character, plot, etc., to create a whole.
2. Why a Poem is not a Letter. Here we will look at the poem as a proper structure of feeling; as an action
beyond feeling. We will look closely at a selection of poems (poems, not texts) to see how the best poets like
Alice Oswald and John Ashbery structure their responses beyond the momentary emotions. We will try to
establish that proper point of arrested feeling, of reflection, before beginning to make a poem. The second
hour will deal with participants’ own work.
3. Examining the difference between a poem and a prose-poem. Mindful of the embedded personal music
of a successful lyric poem, we will examine, disentangle and re-assemble, a group of prose-poems by John
Montague, Carolyn Forché, Trevor Joyce and James Merrill to see how the clockwork of poetic making
works, even in the unpromising material of prose. The second hour will deal with participants’ own work
4. You’d better change your attitude. Here we will look at a number of the key burdens we expect our
poems to carry for us, as well as possible strategies to unburden our poems. We will discuss personal
discipline, mindfulness and watchfulness, goal-setting and the limits of ambition. We will go deeply into
those elements of promise and bitterness in terms of our own poetic ambitions. This will be a serious class
for serious adults who wish to live with poetry all their lives. The second hour of the workshop will deal
with participants’ own work.
5. Poetry as Translation. In this session we will look briefly at two important resources in the making of
poems: Second Languages and Visual Art. Transferring the narrative contained in Art could be seen as a
poetic equivalence of translating from ‘original’ languages. Mindful of the work of such poets as Nuala
Ní Dhómhnaill, Máire Mhac an tSaoí, Ezra Pound and Desmond O’Grady, we will try to arrive at a
consensus around ‘fake’ and ‘authentic’ translating of both language and visual art. Participants’ poems will
be workshoped in the second hour.
Evening 6: Editing, publishing options and competitions. A professional editor will attend to give
tips and advice on editing work. Approaching agents and publishers. Entering competitions. Selfpublishing. The next step on the writing journey. Ideally, each participant should leave with a goal,
such as: joining a writing group; entering a competition; publishing a story collection; writing a novel,
or writing a story for family members to enjoy.
6. Our Duty to Publish in the Worst of Times. Here we will look at the possible public futures of the
workshop participants: how to view the literary world that awaits each poet in the workshop. By looking at
publishers’ lists, contemporary journals, active poetry publishers, we will seek to develop strategies of both
approach and endurance in our poetic careers. We will discuss strategies to deal with early success as well as
coping with persistent, life-long ‘failure.’ In the final hour we will return to the work of individual poets.
PARTICIPATION DETAILS
PARTICIPATION DETAILS
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Intimate class size (eleven maximum) individual attention guaranteed from a much
published, prize-winning author.
Held weekly on Tuesdays, 7-9 pm, from 16 October (Fiction)- 20 November.
Fee: €120 (€100 Concession) for six workshops.
To Book: ring (021) 431-2955 or email [email protected].
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Intimate class size (eleven maximum) individual attention guaranteed from a much
published, prize-winning author.
Held weekly on Wednesdays, 7-9 pm, from 17 October (Poetry) - 21 November.
Fee: €120 (€100 Concession) for six workshops.
To Book: ring (021) 431-2955 or email [email protected].