Nuala Ní Chonchúir's Blog, page 34

THE KINGDOM AWAITS - WRITERS WEEK

Jim Crace, author of the wonderful HarvestI am almost sick with excitement to be heading off to Listowel later today for my first ever visit to Writers Week. The shame! I just always seem to be elsewhere over the June Bank Holiday. I was invited last year but it clashed with a trip to Spain so they very graciously re-invited me this year.

I am looking forward very much to meeting my 15 short story workshoppers tomorrow, to attending the launch of fellow New Islander Mary O'Donnell's novel Where They Lie, and to interviewing the mighty Jim Crace on Friday.

I hope to see some of you in the Kingdom of Kerry over the next few days. In the meantime: Must. Calm. Down.

The Stinging Fly Fiction Workshop

                           











“It’s the best writing course I've done, and I've done a few, including a Masters. The group worked because of the quality of the criticism and there were no door-size egos. Without doubt everybody's work improved during the course and the work was good to start with. The one-to-one sessions were instrumental and in-depth. The guest speakers were unholy and brilliant. The course is definitely a leg up (or a kick in the arse) on the finicky road to completing the first novel.”

“What is outstanding about this course is the generosity, both in terms of time and close attention, with which every submission was discussed by Sean and the rest of the group. Sean’s instincts were unerring, his suggestions helpful, and the energy with which he engaged with each novel was remarkable. An atmosphere was soon established in which as much could be learned by critically engaging with the work of every other member as from feedback on one’s own work.“
—feedback from participants of the New Way to Fly Novel-Writing Workshop

Are you in the early stages of writing a novel or short-story collection?
If so, we are looking for people like you to participate in The Stinging Fly Fiction Workshop offered in association with the Irish Writers' Centre.
The workshop, led by acclaimed novelist and short story-writer Sean O'Reilly, will consist of no more than 10 writers and will meet once a week over a six-month period (October 2014—March 2015).  Whereas in the past, this workshop has only been open to those writing novels, we are now inviting short-story writers into the fray.

HOW IT GOES
At each evening workshop, two participants will present their work in progress (a draft of a short story or novel excerpt) to the rest of the group for close scrutiny. The writing up for discussion each week is the raw material; any questions of writing technique or prose style will arise naturally from the work itself. If you are writing a novel or story collection, you will have ten close readers to respond to every stage of its development.
Alongside the weekly workshops, on four Saturdays during the period, there will be a series of specialist talks on issues around the process of writing and the imagination. Previous guest speakers have included Evelyn Conlon, Mia Gallagher, Michael Harding, Dermot Healy, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Declan Hughes, Paul Murray, Mark O’Halloran, Keith Ridgway and Peter Sheridan.
Over the duration, each participant will also have two one-on-one sessions with Sean.

DATES, TIMES, COSTS
Starts: Monday September 28th 2014 (introductory session)
Times:  Twenty weekly workshops on Monday evenings from 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Four Saturday sessions (dates/times/speakers TBC)
Venue: The Irish Writers’ Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1
Cost of workshop: €1500/€1450 IWC members (A €200 deposit will be payable once a place on the workshop has been offered and accepted. The balance can be paid in two instalments in September 2014 and in January 2015.) The cost of the course includes free membership of the Irish Writers' Centre and current members receive a €50 discount.
Workshop fee also includes free admission to one Publishing Day seminar at the Irish Writers’ Centre during 2015.

APPLYING
We are taking applications now and places will be offered on the basis of work submitted. The final date to apply is August 8th — but we will assess applications as we receive them and we encourage people to apply early in order to secure a place.
See the attached PDF for more detailed information.


Sean O’Reilly’s published work includes Curfew and Other Stories, the novels Love and Sleep and The Swing of Things (all with Faber and Faber), and Watermark (with The Stinging Fly Press). O’Reilly has a wealth of experience facilitating fiction workshops, as Writer-in-Residence with Fingal County Council, Dublin City Council and IADT/Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council amongst others. He currently teaches at the American College Dublin and in the Irish Writers’ Centre.
                             

IT ARTICLE ABOUT FORM

Sinéad Gleeson's new Irish Times series on writing has its second outing today. I am there, along with Ron Rash and Deborah Levy (swoon!) talking about form and why writers should try everything to see what fits. Here.

SUNDAY BUSINESS POST REVIEWS *CLOSET*

Review by Sara Keating in today's Sunday Business Post. Made a shitty day a whole lot better. Click on the pics to enlarge and read.

LARRY GROGAN CARTOON - SHORT STORIES

Self-styled 'author and doodler' Larry Grogan doodled this cartoon after something I said at the Art of the Short Story event in Smock Alley at the Dublin Writers Festival on Thursday. I was paraphrasing Elizabeth Gilbert and I said words to this effect, 'A good short story should bend over backwards and kiss the beginning.' (I can't remember EG's exact words.) It's a quote I like because it speaks to that amalgamated 'oneness' that is one of the hallmarks of short fiction. Anyway, here are me and Mike McCormack, yapping about stories. Cool, no?

NEW REVIEW OF *CLOSET* - BLEACH HOUSE LIBRARY

Margaret Bonass Madden of Bleach House Library has positively reviewed The Closet of Savage Mementos. According to the review, it seems people were upset by comments I made about disliking chicklit, in The Sunday Times. Guess what? I'm not obliged to like anything. And if I don't like a genre (I don't care for crime either) it doesn't mean I am attacking other writers. Plenty of people don't like or read literary fiction, as evidenced by the fact that they don't buy it! I am curious, of course, as to where the disgruntlement took place... I am visiting the Bleach House Book Club in July so perhaps I will find out then ;)

Review here. Big thanks to Margaret.

LITERARY LOVE FEST & SHORT STORY PANEL

Today I take part in writer Janet Cameron's Literary Love Fest.

Tomorrow, with Mike McCormack and Thomas Morris, editor of The Stinging Fly, I discuss short stories at The Dublin Writers Festival. Hope to see some of you there!

POST-EDITING RELIEF, CAKE & TATTOOS

It is done. The send button has been pressed. The second round of edits on my Emily Dickinson novel are finito, in the bag, out of my hair. Now I just have to wait and see what my Penguin editors made of them. I do believe that the novel is now cleaner and that it makes more sense too. It's a good feeling.

Emily Dickinson's Gingerbread
Emily consumes my days and has done for well over a year. If I am not baking her cakes, I am reading another biography, or getting a tattoo inspired by her. When I started this whole thing, I was afraid. It felt audacious. Now, the nearer it gets to being a real thing - a book - the more right it feels. No matter what happens, I have connected with Emily in a profound way and that's what makes me happiest of all. I can't wait to go back to Amherst in August and breathe her air again. For now, it is sighs of relief that I met another deadline. Phew!

It's also back to promoting The Closet of Savage Mementos (not that I ever stopped!) and thinking and talking about short stories at the Dublin Writers Festival.
My Emily inspired tattoo - got it done yesterday in anticipation of pressing the send button today

MIKE MC CORMACK JUDGES THE MOTH INTL SHORT STORY PRIZE

Galway-based writer Mike McCormack is the judge for this year's Moth Short Story Prize. The Prize is open to everyone, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished.  There is a 6,000 word limit. The entry fee is €9 per story and you can enter as many stories as you like. 
You can enter online or simply send your story or stories along with a cheque or postal order made payable to The Moth Magazine Ltd. and an entry form (downloadable here) or a cover letter with your name and contact details and the title of story attached to: The Moth, 81 Church Street, Cavan, Co. Cavan, Ireland. 
This year’s competition will be judged by Mike McCormack, a recipient of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature whose debut short story collection was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His novel Notes from a Coma was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award and was described in the Irish Times as ‘the greatest Irish novel of the decade just ended’. 
CLOSING DATE 30 JUNE 2014  The three winning stories will feature in the autumn 2014 issue of The Moth and the winners will be invited to read at a special event at the Winding Stair Bookshop in Dublin in September 2014. 
READ THE RULES HERE
ENTER ONLINE

PRINT AN ENTRY FORM
You can read the winning story from the 2013 competition, judged by Martina Evans, here.
Read more about the winners of the 2013 prize here. 

*CLOSET* IN HODGES FIGGIS WINDOW

Thanks to sales rep Michael Darcy for this pic of The Closet of Savage Mementos in the Hodges Figgis window. In lovely company: Dave Eggers! John Kelly!