Popular literary workshops take place as part of festival
By Geraldine Fitzgerald
West Cork Literary Festival have announced the first of this year’s creative writing workshops which will take place online in June and July.
All workshops will take place on Zoom.
The adult workshops include Short Story with Louise Kennedy, Crime Writing with Andrea Carter, Memoir/Life-writing with Alexandra Heminsley and Novel Writing with Gavin Corbett. With a maximum of ten participants, the cost is €200.
Words Allowed for teenagers 14-17 with Dave Lordan and E R Murray costs €120 and will have up to 12 participants, starting Friday 11 June at 10am and running for six Fridays.
The Short Story workshop with Louise Kennedy will run from 14-18 June 10.30am-12pm and 2-3.30pm daily. In each session, short stories by two participants will be workshopped by the group with a focus on short story craft: point of view, structure, place, dialogue, and editing.
The Crime Writing workshop with Andrea Carter starts on Tuesday 15 June at 7pm and there will be two sessions per week for four weeks for one and a half hours per session.
Andrea Carter is the bestselling author of the Inishowen Mysteries, and her first three books are in development for TV. She has facilitated workshops for Laois Libraries, in Dublin and Donegal, and has written a weekly column on creative writing for Women’s Way magazine.
The Memoir and Life-writing workshop with Alexandra Heminsley starts on Thursday 17 June at 7pm and the first session will last one hour. There will be 90-minute sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for the subsequent four weeks.
The Novel Hothouse with Gavin Corbett starts on Tuesday 13 July at 2pm, There will be two one-and-a-half-hour workshops each Tuesday afternoon for five weeks.
The workshop is aimed at those with a novel in progress and in the first two weeks the participants will receive feedback on their submitted chapter.
The workshop will also discuss the technical aspects of the craft of fiction and novel-writing. Gavin Corbett is the author of three novels and has been writer-in-residence at both Trinity College Dublin and UCD.
A poetry workshop with Raymond Antrobus will take place in July with details to be announced soon.
Words Allowed for teenagers is open to young people from all backgrounds, identities, and abilities - the only requirement is an interest in writing or storytelling of any kind.
For more information or to book a spot, visit westcorkliteraryfestival.ie.