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?
Fighting Words is coming to South Donegal/North Leitrim/North Sligo/West Fermanagh, and we are looking for volunteers! Have you got what it takes? Have a browse on the Fighting Words website: www.fightingwords.ie/volunteer to learn more, or come along to an information session at Bundoran Library on Monday, October 9 from 12 till 1.
From the website:
What kind of people volunteer at Fighting Words?
Everyone! All tutoring at Fighting Words is free and delivered by teams of volunteer writing tutors. We have over 400 volunteer tutors – people from all walks of life – including third level students (from all disciplines!), retired people, writers (both professional and aspiring), teachers, journalists, visual artists, musicians and filmmakers – just to name a few.
What kind of skills do I need to volunteer at Fighting Words?
Anyone who enjoys working in a creative environment with the individuals and groups that come to our centres – and is a good listener – is welcome to volunteer. You don’t need to be a writer or a teacher to be a Fighting Words volunteer writing tutor.
What kind of commitment to I have to give?
Volunteering with Fighting Words is totally flexible because your time is a valuable resource. Tutors choose the days and times they come in using our online calendar for Dublin, Glencree and Cork. You simply click on the day you’d like to come in and sign up. For example, we have tutors who choose to come in on the same day every week on the same day, tutors who come in for a week or two in the summer and tutors who come in a few times a year for evening workshops. In Mayo, the local volunteer co-ordinator will contact you by email about our monthly workshops.
There is no minimum time commitment – and we mean that!
Dig out your best work, there is still time to enter. Up to 5 poems, max 40 lines; up to 5 flash fiction pieces, max 800 words. Moya Cannon will judge the poetry competition, Paul Lynch the flash fiction, and Monica Corish will be the filter judge for both competitions. Read all about it at http://www.allinghamfestival.com/fiction-poetry-competitions/
And keep an eye on the Allingham website for news of lots of splendid writerly events, including a poetry masterclass from Moya, a book launch from Paul, and readings from all three judges.
Bundoran Community Centre is offering a new ETB-funded creative writing class on Thursday mornings, 10.30 – 12.30, starting September 28.
The cost for 7 sessions is only €14. The classes will be led by local creative writing tutor Monica Corish. Places are limited, so contact bundorancommunitycentre@gmail.com to book your place, or phone 071-982-9675.
Poetry and Story Inspired by Myth, August 19. This workshop is now full 🙂 If you would like to go on a cancellation waiting list, please send me your mobile number via email or FB private message – Thanks, Monica
Sinead Morrisey, Belfast’s poet laureate and winner of the TS Eliot prize, will read at the Stoneywoods Festival on Saturday, July 1 at 5:50 p.m. Sinead will be accompanied by Teresa Lally, winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award, and myself, Monica Corish. The event is €5 at the door and all are welcome to attend.
Unfortunately I’ve had to cancel the RDW/Comhlamh creative writing workshop, scheduled for April 22 in the Great Southern Hotel Sligo.
In the current issue of Africa Magazine.
Each morning I read the latest postings from The Writer’s Almanac, Delancey Place, and Word-a-Day. From those sources, and a few others, I’ve collected two kinds of quotations that have caught my eye:
Last year I launched www.tomsigafoos.com, hoping to attract a community of like-minded writers and readers. At the core of the website, I’ve posted quotations. In 2016, most of my posts were about writing. In 2017, in a world that seems to be losing its sense of decency and compassion, I’m going to post other quotes as well.
I hope that you enjoy the quotations and ideas. Please consider following my blog, re-blogging the quotes, and sharing them on Facebook or re-tweeting them on Twitter…
View original post 15 more words
Thanks to friend and Manorhamilton artist Rachel Webb for the videos, taken at the Five Glens Festival…
Love this piece by Tom, in memory of a good friend.
It’s been a year since Andy McLaren died. My tribute to him appeared in today’s edition of the Donegal Post (4 July 2018):
Andy McLaren died shortly after midsummer last year. He spent the last week of his life in the Intensive Care Unit of Letterkenny General Hospital, where only immediate family members were permitted to visit. A sympathetic nurse carried messages back and forth. Andy was on a breathing apparatus, and he didn’t want me to see him under those circumstances. He said that he’d let me know as soon as he was better, but his lungs were too damaged and his resistance was too low. He died on Sunday, July 2.
I miss Andy. I miss hurrying into Linda’s Diner to find him sitting with one eye on the clock and the other on a rumpled newspaper, halfway through a cup of coffee and wondering how late I…
View original post 423 more words
Create your own Soul Cards with card, glue, images and imagination. Collage — a creative and playful method for intuitive, artful self-discovery and self-expression — is accessible to everyone, even those who think they have no artistic ability.
Where? Lakeside Centre, Belleek Road, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal
When? Saturday, July 14, 11 AM – 5 PM
How much? €75, all materials supplied
Early bird concession: €60 before July 6
Questions? Contact monicacorishwriting@gmail.com
What they said about previous workshops: “Surprisingly easy.” — “A window into my interior, amusing, surprising and fun.” — “A restful day of creative play and unexpected connections.”
This workshop is based on the SoulCollage® process developed by Seena B Frost, and on the Art to Heart methods taught by Jole Bortoli.
Lunch, teas, coffees will be available at AJ’s Wine Bar and Restaurant, Lakeside Centre.
Again from Brainpickings, which I urge you to read and support, here are “Eight Tips on How to Write a Great Story” — guidelines from Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-5, Cat’s Cradle, and many fine short stories):
View original post 58 more words
15 March — It’s the birthday of Ben Okri, author of The Famished Road, who said, “Literature doesn’t have a country. Shakespeare is an African writer. … The characters of Turgenev are ghetto dwellers. Dickens’ characters are Nigerians. … Literature may come from a specific place, but it always lives in its own unique kingdom.”
He also said, “Beware of the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world.”
Splendid writing advice…
Elmore (“Dutch”) Leonard, author of Hombre, Get Shorty and Rum Punch, laid down ten rules for good writing. They’re hard to beat:
And he said, “My most important rule is one that sums up the 10. If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
Zadie Smith’s 10 Rules of Writing:
When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.
When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.
Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation.’ You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle.’ All that matters is what you leave on the page.
Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can’t do aren’t worth doing. Don’t mask self-doubt with contempt.
Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.
Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won’t make your writing any better than it is.
Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.
Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody…
View original post 42 more words
It’s the birthday of Norman Mailer, who wrote prophetically, “To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there’s more idleness and abuse of government favors among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged.”
Others who share this birthday include Trappist monk and author Thomas Merton, Zane Grey (Riders of the Purple Sage), and John O’Hara, author of one of my favorite quotes: “What is loneliness anyway but the final condition of us all? And where would love be without it?”
Application date extended to January 31…
