Tune in to the Glens Centre YouTube channel https://bit.ly/3cdFExe at 7pm on Tues 23rd Feb 2021 to view eleven micro-films on the theme of “the border between us”.
These micro-films / visual-poems / digital-stories were created during a twelve week online programme facilitated by Rachel Webb and Monica Corish, supported by Across the Lines and the International Fund for Ireland.
Unto us a Child is Born
On 25 August 2020, after four years without a single case, the African region was certified free of wild polio virus.
In 1994, a few days after I arrived in the border town of Nimule in South Sudan, I woke in the night to a bone-chilling cry. It reminded me of an Irish caoineadh, a keening for the dead. In the morning I heard that a baby had died of measles. I was stunned. I knew, from book-learning, that measles can damage the nerves, the eyes, the ears, the brain. I knew in my head that measles can be fatal, but in my heart I still thought of it as a benign childhood disease.
The epidemic raged through the small town, taking the children who were weak, malnourished, immuno-compromised. Night after night I heard the songs of grief – five children dead, still more facing lifelong disability – and then silence. The epidemic had burned itself out.
***
I was in Nimule to train community health workers, and to help with a programme of immunisation. With a team of South Sudanese and Kenyan health workers, I visited local villages and camps. Everywhere we went we offered immunisation against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, tuberculosis and polio.
I met a young woman in one of the villages. She held her baby to her breast, in a wrap made out of a food sack. I asked how old her baby was. One week, she said. I asked if I could see. She unfolded the wrap and showed me her child. I can’t remember if it was a boy or a girl – I can’t remember the young woman’s name – I only remember her grace, her weathered hand holding her child, the newborn’s sleeping perfection. I asked the young woman if I could take a photograph of her baby. She said yes.
***
In 1994 an estimated 75,000 children across Africa were paralysed for life by the polio virus. Thousands of those children died when the virus paralysed their breathing muscles. Nelson Mandela, the recently elected president of South Africa, refused to accept this ongoing tragedy. “When people are determined,” he said, “they can overcome anything.” In 1996, in partnership with Rotary International, Mandela launched the “Kick Polio Out of Africa” campaign. Footballs with the slogan showed up everywhere – in stadiums, in school yards, on dusty soccer pitches. Communities, parents, health workers, volunteers, churches, mosques, governments, donors – they all came together, united by one aim – to immunise every child on the continent against this crippling disease.
***
On 25 August 2020, after four years without a single case, the 47 countries in the Africa region of the World Health Organisation were certified free of the wild polio virus. Today, because of the committed work of thousands of health workers and volunteers, more than 18 million people are able to walk, people who would otherwise have been paralysed by the virus.
But the fight against polio in Africa isn’t over yet. In Ireland, children are given an injectable vaccine that contains a dead form of the virus. This injectable form is expensive. Less well-off countries have to use an oral vaccine which contains an weakened form of the virus. In very rare circumstances this weakened virus can itself cause polio.
And so, although a huge milestone has been reached, immunisation and outbreak surveillance continue, and efforts are underway to make the injectable form of the virus available to everyone, everywhere. The journey continues, until the day when polio, like smallpox, is completely eradicated from the face of the earth.
***
That photo I took of the mother and her newborn has stayed with me over the years. I keep it close, on the door of my fridge, tucked into a diary, pinned to a corkboard.
I imagine this child grown to adulthood – I like that I don’t know whether it’s a girl or a boy – not knowing increases my sense of the possible lives this child may have led. I imagine that the infant in the photograph is a parent now, with children of their own. I imagine a baby, grandchild to the mother in the photograph, born into a world that is entirely free from the threat of polio.
***
This article 1st appeared in the Christmas 2020 issue of Africa Magazine. You can read more about the eradication of polio in Africa on these websites: www.africakicksoutwildpolio.com; Rotary International’s website www.endpolio.org; the Global Polio Eradication Initiative www.polioeradication.org; and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance https://www.gavi.org
Delighted to have my poems – and video of Maeve’s Version – published in “Trasna”, an online journal out of Lowell, Massachusetts edited by Christine O’Connor, Margaret O’Brien and Jeannie Judge.
Excellent opportunity for anyone in the Leitrim / Fermanagh region who wants to learn the skills of visual storytelling, while exploring the political, personal, real, imagined and socially-distanced borders that impact on our lives.
This 12 week series of free, online workshops is hosted by the Glens Centre/Across the Lines, and facilitated by writer Monica Corish and visual artist Rachel Webb. Full details, including how to book, at http://www.facebook.com/events/414642819525558
Image Credit https://www.katenolan.ie/pettigo
Writing Together in the Zoom Room – the pros and the cons
These innovative creative writing workshops will be led by Monica Corish, a trained and experienced Amherst Method facilitator (see below for more about the Amherst Method).
Find details about the workshop here.
I’ve been leading Amherst Method writing groups since 2008 – in arts venues, in community centres, in my local library, and from the sitting room of my house in north Leitrim. In late March 2020, shortly after lockdown was announced, we left my sitting-room and entered into the Zoom-room.
The first few sessions were challenging. Together we learned a new and unfamiliar technology; we learned how to function as a group in a virtual space; we learned how to be spontaneous, while also being respectful of each other’s voices.
Some things stayed the same. As before, people gathered once a fortnight to write together in a safe and inspiring environment, based on the Amherst Method guidelines. At each session I offered a prompt and invited the group to write in response. Silence fell as words poured onto the page, for 10, 20, 30 minutes. If someone got stuck I met them one-to-one in a private “breakout room”, to help them find their flow again.
As before, I invited people to read what they had written; the group practised the skill of “close listening” – a vital skill for every writer; and those who chose to read received positive feedback that helped them develop their voices. People wrote about everything under the sun in these sessions, including the minuscule virus that had upended their lives. One person wrote the first chapter of a witty Zoom-room murder mystery…
Sometimes a video connection broke down, sometimes the audio was glitchy – in rural Ireland strong broadband is a gift, not a given. The disadvantages of writing together online are obvious: you don’t get to meet your fellow participants in the flesh; you can’t read their body language or hear their small gasps of admiration as you read your work; you don’t get to chat one-to-one during the break.
But there are advantages. You can join in from anywhere in the world. And you don’t have to get into your car on a dark, blustery winter’s night to drive to my sitting-room in north Leitrim.
Here at last… Saturday, July 18 at 8 PM on the Glens Centre YouTube channel
The endlessly inventive and productive people at Across the Lines (IFI) / Open Mic Manor / The Thing Itself are inviting video or audio contributions for their next Crossing Borders Open Mic Online (IFI). The theme for this event is “Way-points and Markers” – the places, journeys and signposts that have marked our individual and collective transitions over the last three months. They invited me to come up with a prompt to spark contributions. Here it is:
Hestia is the Greek goddess of interiors, of contemplative time and space. She is the hearth-fire that makes a house into a home.
Hermes is the trickster god of travel, trade, computers, protector of doorways and boundaries, the messenger and mover, the communicator.
In her books “Goddesses in Everywoman” and “Gods in Everyman”, Jean Shinoda Bolen tells how these two very different archetypes are related. In Greek households the “herm” – a pillar symbolizing Hermes – stood just outside the front door, in a distinct but intimate connection with Hestia’s hearth-fire at the centre .
I invite you to see in your mind’s eye a place that represents the containment of “lockdown”; and a place that represents the process of “unlocking”. These places may be in the geography of your home, your county, your country, the world; or virtual places; or the space inside the arms of someone you love – a hug you are grateful to have received during lockdown, or a hug you are still yearning towards.
Whatever spaces come to you, feel them through your senses, through smell, and sight and touch and sound. And then write about these two spaces, placing them in relationship each with the other.
Photo credits:
Tune in to the Glens Centre YouTube channel on Friday, June 12 at 8 PM, to hear poems, stories and songs inspired by Imbolc, by Spring, and by Brigid, Goddess and Saint. This episode will feature writing from:
Tom’s article “Fighting Words: A Snapshot” gives a vivid account of what it’s like to volunteer with Fighting Words. It’s published today in the Irish Times on-line edition: https://www.irishtimes.com/fighting-words-a-snapshot-1.4273838
Tune in to the Glens Centre YouTube channel on Friday, June 5, 12, 19 and 26 at 8 PM, to hear poems, stories and songs inspired by the myths and legends, landscapes and festivals of the North West. Featuring work from:
You can hear more about these broadcasts in Brendan Murray’s interview with Monica Corish on Ocean FM’s Arts North West, on Thursday, June 4 at 9:30 PM (repeat Sunday, June 7 at 8 PM).
This event is a fundraiser for North West STOP Suicide Prevention, which provides counselling support for people at risk of suicide. Donations can be made through their website, or through Facebook.
Image from page 80 of “The new art of memory, founded upon the principles taught by M. Gregor von Feinaigle: and applied to chronology, history, geography, languages, systematic tables, poetry, prose, and arithmetic.”
This week’s prompt is a quote from Eavan Boland, who died suddenly on April 27.
“I was aware,” she said, “that it was easier to have a political murder as the subject of an Irish poem than a baby or a washing machine.”
And as a bonus prompt, begin a piece of writing with the first line of The Pomegranate.
“It was the day the dandelions turned into clocks.” — Sherrie Scott, member of the original Scratching Hens.
You might use this quote as a regular prompt, or you might use it to create an acrostic poem — definition and examples here and here. Here’s a sample start:
it was the day i got lost in
the
woods…
a
s
t
h
e
d
a
y
t
h
e
d
a
n
d
e
l
i
o
n
s
t
u
r
n
e
d
i
n
t
o
c
l
o
c
k
s
Not a writing prompt this week, rather a signpost to online resources that will help you develop your craft.
If you have time on your hands, the renowned Iowa Writers Workshop offers FREE online courses in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction.
And if you have time and money to spare, the excellent Arvon Foundation and Faber Academy offer a variety of options.
These range from a two hour Arvon Masterclass in Plot and Narrative Structure, (April 30 at 11 AM, cost £35); to Faber’s flagship eight-month course, Writing a Novel Online (application date August 19, cost £2500).
Happy writing – stay well, stay smart, stay kind.
This week’s prompt was given to me by Eva O’Callaghan, another Amherst Method creative writing facilitator.
Start by reading “Four Horses”. Eva says: “I like the structure of this poem by David Whyte as a prompt for reflecting on and writing about any happening and its impact. I found it helpful to me to reflect on what is going on in our world at the moment.” She suggests that you write a response that is anchored by these phrases from Whyte’s poem:
And if you come up with a poem that you want to publish, be sure to credit its source: after Four Horses by David White
Write a poem or a flash fiction that includes all these words, offered by the All-Weather Writers: Pencil – Oily – Diamond – Invoice – Pester – Muddy – Cacophony. Be as serious or as silly as you like. And if this writing prompt appeals, consider following the weekly Ó Bhéal Five Words International Poetry Competition
If you get stuck, with this or any other prompt – staring at the blank page, waiting for inspiration to strike – you might consider the excellent Natalie Goldberg‘s excellent advice on flow writing, summarised here.
Today’s writing prompt is an invitation to Ekphrasis – defined by The Ekphrastic Review as “writing inspired by visual art”. Two famous examples of ekphrastic literature are WH Auden’s In the Musée des Beaux Arts, and Tracy Chevalier’s novel (later a movie) Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Today’s Ekphrastic inspiration is the painting “Over and Above“ by Irish artist Martin Gale. You can learn more about the painting and the artist on the National Gallery of Ireland website.
And if you are happy with what you write, you might consider submitting it to The Ekphrastic Review.
For the duration of the duration, I will be posting occasional writing prompts in my blog, on Facebook and on Twitter. First up – given that we are all now hyper-aware of how we stand in relation to each other – is “A Snap Quiz in Body Language”, by David Wagoner:
Click here to read a prose poem I wrote in answer to David Wagoner’s poem, at the first virtual gathering of the wonderful All-Weather Writers. I posted it on the Allingham Festival Facebook page, as a contribution to their #CreativityAgainstCorona challenge – you might want to do the same.
Stay well, stay safe – Monica
The Air is Alive with Fear and Care
When people greet in South Sudan, they hold hands for many minutes – half an hour if the warmth is strong, the bond of kin or friendship. How is your mother? Your aunt? Your son? And your herd of cattle – thriving? Did the speckled cow survive the difficult birth?
Now the air crackles between us, friend or stranger, in every nation. Two metres. Six feet, the length and depth of a coffin. I walk a narrow path in the woods, meet a man with an unleashed terrier. Will he step to his side, mirror my care? He does.
We smile, we breathe a sigh. The air is alive with fear and care.
On the lake the Swans continue their slow courtship. I am learning the songs of the residents – Blackbird, Robin, Song Thrush, Wren – while they have the forest to themselves.
The evenings are longer by the day. There is no call to quarantine the birds. Larks exhilarate, Starlings murmurate, dark swirls against a clouded sky.
Soon the explorers will arrive from Africa – Cuckoo and Swallow, the creaking Corncrake, not yet extinct. Our small island will levitate with their cacophony, their mating joy. They will tell again their noisy stories, how they navigate by star maps and the magnets in their eyes.
Leave us our green walks, I pray.
O makers of the rules of wise restraint, let me be close to the wisdom of Hazel, let me watch her leaves unfurl out of the cell of winter.
I can do this, I tell myself. Cocoon. Lock-down. Self-isolate.
And if they say I cannot walk between the trees, there is still my garden, small and unruly, in need of love.
I can do this, however long it takes.
If every day I can rinse my heart clean of fear. If I can fill my lungs with God’s green air.
ghamArts #CreativityAgainstCorona
For the sake of these children, and their children’s children …
https://www.corkbeo.ie/culture/family-kids/cork-schoolkids-make-brilliant-rap-17676429?fbclid=IwAR3WscFoAmrW-DamZKTH9JYkBI-jXK0Ecz-foeGLSJeLVkTVYMntVpEAeVc …
I’ll be voting for the Green Party’s excellent Blaithin Gallagher in Sligo/Leitrim
https://www.greenparty.ie/our-people/candidates/
At this workshop, based on the Amherst Method, we will write in response to prompts inspired by Imbolc / Lá Fhéile Bríde.
Imbolc is associated with the birth of lambs, the spring sowing, the return of the long days and the fire of the sun. It is a time of new beginnings, green shoots, the unploughed field, the blank page. Imbolc is also known as Brigid’s Day – Lá Fhéile Bríde. Brigid, honoured both as a pre-Christian goddess and as a Christian saint, is linked with blessing and fertility, inspiration, midwifery and birth.
No previous knowledge of myth or experience of writing is necessary to participate in this writing workshop – all you need bring with you is a notebook, a pen, and a willingness to be surprised by your own unique voice.
“What brings me back time and again is the surprise of not knowing what will emerge…”
Kinlough, Co Leitrim; Fortnightly on Wednesdays, January 15 – May 20; 7 – 9:30 PM.
You like to write, but you don’t know where to start? You used to write, but you can’t remember how you made it happen? You are a writer, but your words feel stale on the page?
Then this Amherst method workshop is for you. Full details at monicacorish.ie/workshops, or contact monicacorishwriting@gmail.com / 087-641 4185.
Image credit: amystrachan https://www.flickr.com/photos/30802789@N02/
Writing and manuscript response for those who are working toward publication. Develop your skills through tailored exercises and guidance on craft, and receive constructive critique and insightful feedback from other writers.
Creative writing time for everyone: beginners & experienced writers, women & men, anyone over the age of 18. Whether you are completely new to creative writing or an experienced writer who wants to generate new work and experiment with different genres and styles, this Amherst method workshop is for you.
Image credit: amystrachan https://www.flickr.com/photos/30802789@N02/
Poetry: the Art and the Craft – Places still availableSaturday 23 November 2019, 11 am – 5 pm, Clanchy Court, Kinlough, Co Leitrim. Cost: €60 / Early bird: €50 before November 17.
Email to receive a PayPal button, for payments with credit card / debit card / PayPal, or post a cheque. Places limited, advance booking essential.
Saturday 23 November 2019, 11 am – 5 pm, Clanchy Court, Kinlough, Co Leitrim.
A day of reading, writing and revising poetry. All you need bring with you is your notebook and a curious mind. If you have a poem – max 20 lines – you’d like to receive feedback on, bring 10 copies to the workshop.
Cost: €60 / Early bird: €50 before November 17.
Email me to receive a PayPal button, for payments with credit card / debit card / PayPal, or post me a cheque. Places limited, advance booking essential.
Poetry and Story, Landscape and Myth: Samhain 2019
The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, Sunday, November 3, 10:30 – 16:30. €30, booking through https://glenscentre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873607199 or phone the Glens: (071) 9855833. Led by Monica Corish, award-winning writer and AWA certified writing workshop leader.
The Liminal Space: Andrea Cambridge-Gonzales, Liminal Space & Instructional Design on Pinterest
The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, Sunday, November 3, 10:30 – 16:30. €30, booking through https://glenscentre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873607199 or phone the Glens: (071) 9855833. Led by Monica Corish, award-winning writer and AWA certified writing workshop leader.
At this workshop we will write in response to prompts inspired by Samhain.
The festival of Samhain is associated with borders, boundaries and liminal spaces – between life and death, sleep and waking, the world of the everyday and the world of the sídhe. It is the time of summer’s end and the beginning of winter and the Celtic year, a time when the veil between worlds is thinned. Our writing may be inspired by any realm – by mythical borders or by political limits and lines on the map. No previous experience of writing is necessary – all you need bring with you is a notebook, a pen, and a willingness to be surprised by your own words.
If you’re i
nterested in developing your skills as a poet, this is the workshop for you. You will spend time reading and learning from established poets, writing new work, and revising your poems through constructive critique and insightful feedback.
Thursday, Sep 12 & 26; Oct 10 & 24; Nov 7 & 21; Dec 5. Min 6 / Max 9 participants Cost for 7 sessions: €130. Early bird before Sept 2: €110.
Enquiries to monicacorishwriting@gmail.com. Payment by PayPal button or by cheque
Explore your creativity and develop confidence in your voice by writing with other women in a warm and encouraging environment. If you are new to creative writing, or if you want to use the workshop time to explore your voice, experiment with different genres and styles and write new work, then this Amherst method workshop is for you.
Wednesdays, Sep 11 & 25; Oct 9 & 23; Nov 6 & 20; Dec 4. Min 6 / Max 11 participants. Cost for 7 sessions: €110 Early bird before Sept 2 : €95
Enquiries to monicacorishwriting@gmail.com. Payment by PayPal button or by cheque
The 2019 ALLINGHAM POETRY AND FLASH FICTION COMPETITIONS are now open.
Deadline: 26 September 2019
Details: €300 prizes for winners in Poetry and Flash Fiction competitions. €5 entry fee. Prizes awarded at 2019 Allingham Festival Literary Lunch on Saturday, 8 November in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal. Rules and on-line entry forms at http://www.allinghamfestival.com/fiction-poetry-competitions
This year’s Allingham Festival will feature journalist Eamonn McCann, poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin, documentary filmmaker Garry Keane, illustrator and former Children’s Laureate PJ Lynch, and a tribute to playwright Frank McGuinness.
This Lughnasa-inspired workshop, led by Monica Corish, will take place in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim on Sunday August 11, 10:00 – 18:00, only €30.
The day will begin with a short writing exercise in the Glens Centre. Weather permitting, we will then go on a car-pooling, wheelchair-accessible, mystery field trip, where we will glean further inspiration, before returning to the Glens Centre in the afternoon. And if it is a day of torrential rain, as is entirely possible, a Plan B will be hatched. More details closer to the time…
You can book directly through the Glens Centre website, or by phone/email: (071) 985583 / info@theglenscentre.com
Image credits: Lugh by Brian Froude, Wheat Bees Design mightyskins.com, Tailltiu by Jim Fitzpatrick.
You can learn more about this series of workshops, “Poetry and Story, Landscape and Myth”, from Ocean FM Arts House (the interview between Harry Keaney and Monica Corish begins about 16 minutes into the podcast).
Happy to say that my memory piece about staying up late to watch the first moon landing will be broadcast on Sunday Miscellany this coming Sunday, July 14.
All Sunday Miscellany words and music are available as a podcast here.
Only €30. This Bealtaine-inspired workshop, led by Monica Corish, will take place on Sunday May 26, 10:30 – 4:30. You can book directly through the Glens Centre website, or by phone/email: (071) 985583/info@theglenscentre.com
Learn more about the workshop from my earlier blog, and from this Ocean FM Arts House podcast. The interview between Harry Keaney and Monica Corish begins about 16 minutes into the podcast.
My interview with Harry Keaney for Ocean FM’s Art House will be broadcast Sunday, May 19 between 8 and 9 p.m. (about half way through the program, Harry tells me). During the interview we talked about my upcoming Bealtaine Creative Writing Workshop at the Glens Centre, Manorhamilton. and also about the writing life, writing workshops and the Amherst Method.
You can book for the Bealtaine workshop (Sunday May 26, 10:30 – 4:30) directly through the Glens Centre website.
To book, contact the Glens Centre Manorhamilton directly: (071) 985583 / info@theglenscentre.com. Sunday, May 26, 10:30 – 16:30. Cost: €30. Places limited, advance booking required.
In the month of May the Cailleach of Winter transforms into the blossoming Goddess of Summer. Bealtaine is associated with the fertility of nature and the imagination; with flowering hawthorn; and the need-fire of purification and blessing. The Tuatha De Danann are strongly linked with Bealtaine. According to the Book of Invasions, the golden people of the goddess Danu landed at Sliabh an Iarainn (Iron Mountain, on the shores of Lough Allen, Co Leitrim) during the Bealtaine festival. Many years later they went through the same mountain into the Otherworld and became the daoine sídhe.
At this workshop we will draw on the stories of Bealtaine to spark new writing in any form – poetry, story, memoir, opinion, reflection. The workshops will be led by award-winning writer and AWA-trained writing group leader Monica Corish monicacorish.ie. They are suitable for both novice writers and experienced writers, anyone over the age of eighteen. No previous knowledge of folklore or myth is needed.
This is the first in a series of workshops on the theme of “Poetry and Story, Landscape and Myth”, supported by the Glens Centre, the Arts Council and Leitrim County Council. Photo credit Slieve Anierin mountainviews.ie
Be inspired to write by the landscapes and borders, mythologies and megaliths of Leitrim and the North West. Four one day workshops at the Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, led by Monica Corish. €30 / single workshop; €100 / 4 workshops
Places limited, advance booking required.
To book, contact info@theglenscentre.com / (071) 9855833.
Supported by the Glens Centre, the Arts Council and Leitrim County Council.
Early bird till January 7 – poetry, fiction + memoir, women’s Amherst Method group – monicacorish.ie/workshops/ 
With thanks to Joe HF for his wonderful One-Stroke Sketch
You’d like to be a better writer? Or a better poet? You write a little, but you’d like to write more? Or you haven’t written since school, but you’d like to give it a try?
This term I’ll be leading three fortnightly workshops in Kinlough, Co Leitrim. Not sure which is for you? Read more at monicacorish.ie/workshops, or contact me.
Early bird concession available until Jan 7. Workshops start Tues 15 / Wed 16 / Thurs 17 January. Places limited, so advance booking is advised.
Spring 2019, Kinlough, Co Leitrim: This term I’m offering:
Full details at monicacorish.ie/workshops. Places are limited, so advance booking is advised.
“Makes me write instead of thinking about writing.” – J O’C
Pat Schneider, founder of the Amherst Method, in ‘Writing Alone and with Others’, OUP.
Women Writing Together, Kinlough, Co Leitrim, Autumn 2018: Explore your creativity, develop confidence in your voice by writing with other women in a warm and encouraging environment. The workshops will be led by award-winning writer and Amherst trained writing group leader Monica Corish. For more info go to www.monicacorish.ie/workshops / contact monicacorishwriting@gmail.com / 087-6414185.
Early bird concession until Tuesday, September 4. Details at www.monicacorish.ie/workshops
Develop your writing skills through free-writing and craft exercises, constructive critique and insightful feedback. Seven x 3 hours: Tuesdays, 7 – 10 pm, Sept 11 & 25, Oct 9 & 23, Nov 6 & 20, Dec 4 2018. Cost: €125, early bird concession €100, before Tues Sept 4.
Numbers limited, advance booking essential. For more info and payment options go to www.monicacorish/workshops
Explore your creativity and develop confidence in your voice by writing with other women in a warm and encouraging environment. Seven x 2.5 hours: Wednesdays, 7 – 9:30 pm, Sept 12 & 26, Oct 10 & 24, Nov 7 & 21, Dec 5 2018. Cost: €105, early bird concession €90, before Tues Sept 4.
Numbers limited, advance booking essential. For more info and payment options go to www.monicacorish/workshops
A day of writing inspired by Lugh, god of first harvests, great gatherings, skill, crafts, oaths and truth.
Where? Lakeside Centre, Belleek Road, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal
When? Saturday, August 11, 11 AM – 5 PM
How much? €75
Early bird concession: €65 before August 3
Questions? Go to monicacorish.ie/workshops/ or email monicacorishwriting@gmail.com
Six Tuesday evenings: 7 – 9:30 pm, Apr 10, Apr 24, May 1, May 8, May 22, Jun 5. Cost: €90, early bird concession €75, before Tues Apr 3. For more info: monicacorishwriting@gmail.com 087-6414185. Numbers limited, advance booking essential. Develop your writing skills through constructive critique, feedback and tailored craft exercises.
€90
Six Wednesday evenings: 7 – 9:30 pm, Apr 11, Apr 25, May 2, May 9, May 23, Jun 6. Cost: €90, early bird concession €75, before Tues Apr 3. For more info: monicacorishwriting@gmail.com 087-6414185. Numbers limited, advance booking essential. Develop confidence in your voice by writing with other women in a warm and encouraging environment.
€90
A workshop to generate new writing, inspired by the myths of the Cailleach, of Samhain and Winter, the dark of the year… The workshop will take place in the Sligo Park Hotel on Pearse Road, halfway between Queen Maeve’s Cairn on Knocknarea and the Cailleach a Bherra’s House in the Ballygawley Hills, in the heart of Sligo’s ritual landscape. What better place to meet your mythic muse?
When? Saturday, November 25, 10:30 – 5:30. Where? Hazelwood Suite, Sligo Park Hotel. Cost? €80. Numbers limited, advance booking essential. For more info contact 087-6414185, monicacorishwriting@gmail.com To pay, go to www.monicacorish.ie/workshops/
This is the second in a series of “Poetry and Story Inspired by Myth” workshops led by award-winning writer and AWA certified writing group leader Monica Corish.
Saturday, November 25, 10:30 – 5:30, Hazelwood Suite, Sligo Park Hotel. Cost €80 / €70 if payment received by November 19. To book, go to monicacorish.ie/workshops/, for more info contact monicacorishwriting@gmail.com
She is the Hag of Winter, both female and male, the end and the beginning, the gateway to the ancestors, she is the dark before birth and the dark we fear. And, in her wild and withered dryness, she is the juicy source of our best writing…
This is the second in a series of “Poetry and Story Inspired by Myth” workshops led by award-winning writer and AWA certified writing group leader Monica Corish.
The workshop will take place in the Sligo Park Hotel on Pearse Road, halfway between Queen Maeve’s Cairn on Knocknarea and the Cailleach a Bherra’s House in the Ballygawley Hills, in the heart of Sligo’s ritual landscape. What better place to meet your mythic muse?
A stunning art project, based in Carrick on Suir, described here by Margaret O’Brien, one of my Amherst Method writing colleagues. Heartbreaking and inspiring.
Artist Tony Oakey, right, holding the original legacy art piece, with the late Mary Wells’ daughter Geraldine and family, and niece Martina. Geraldine is holding a copy of the print.
Nice work, Tom Sigafoos!
My creative-nonfiction piece Dobhar Chúhas been published in Trasna, a literary journal / blog originating from Lowell, Massachusetts. Many thanks to Margaret O’Brien for offering me the opportunity to submit work to Trasna, and to Jeannie Judge for writing a wonderful introduction.
Edited by Christine O’Connor, Jeannie Judge and Margaret O’Brien, Trasna explores the well-traveled route between Lowell and Ireland, introducing Irish writers to an American readership. All pieces will have a bio and links to the writers’ works. Trasna will be seeking and promoting new, emerging, and established Irish writers. There will also be a focus on Irish traditions and customs that have been lost to time or to an ocean crossing.
If, like me, you’re worried about the future of democracy in the US, please encourage your American friends overseas to vote with Federal Write-in Absentee Ballots. It’s a positive action that we can all take.
I’ve been making phone calls on behalf of the Democrats Abroad organisation, urging Americans who live around the world to vote in the 2020 General Election. Some nine million US citizens live outside the country, and six-and-a-half million are registered voters. In 2016, however, only one million of us voted.
Because many countries have slow, overloaded postal systems, overseas voters can use a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot that can be downloaded from www.votefromabroad.org/fwab. Now that the US postal system has also been slowed down and overloaded, we’re urging overseas voters to download their ballots now, write in their choices and post their votes as soon as possible.
Please don’t sit this one out, and…
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