Tune in to the Glens Centre YouTube channel on Friday, June 26  at 8 PM, to hear poems, stories and songs inspired by Lunasa. The cycle of the year that began with the dark of Samhain is crowned by the brightness of Lugh, and by the harvest festival held in his name. As part of our Lunasa workshop we visited the Shannon Pot and the Cavan Burren, an extraordinary landscape of weathered limestone and megalithic monuments crafted by Ireland’s first farmers.

This episode will feature writing from Tom Sigafoos, Paula Lahiff, Shane Leavy, Dermot Lahiff and Monica Corish; and singing from Tara Baoth Mooney and Maggie Kilcoyne. 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 credit: Lugh, Brian Froud

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.

Perspective of a dutch interior viewed from a doorway *oil on canvas *103 x 70 cm *1642 – 1678

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:

• The Slippers – Samuel van Hoogstraten
• By the Hearth – Platt Powell Ryder
• Hermes/Mercury – Amelia G. Suárez, http://www.pinterest.co.uk/collaciu/
• Pedestrian crowd – http://www.pikist.com/free-photo-xevfk
• Grandfather, granddaughter – Varun Kulkarni, pixabay.com/photos/grandfather-granddaughter-family-2391461/

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:

• Monica Corish,
• Shane Leavy,
• Dermot Lahiff,
• Paula Lahiff,
• Tara Baoth Mooney,
• Margaret Timoney
• Tom Sigafoos.

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:

• Monica Corish,
• Shane Leavy,
• Dermot Lahiff,
• Paula Lahiff,
• Maggie Kilcoyne,
• Tara Baoth Mooney,
• Margaret Timoney
• Tom Sigafoos.

• Free of preambles—They start at the flashpoint—the moment when conflict ignites tangible action that drives the story forward.
• Scene-based—They frequently take place in one run of time, without jumping around.
• Observant—They tend to feature not the “I” but the “eye.”
• Insightful—Like a flashlight illuminating a dark corner, they explore something that provoked an insight.
• Specific—They stick with concrete, observable events and actions rather than abstract concepts.
• True—As a subgenre of creative nonfiction, Flash Memoir must uphold the nonfiction contract that what is reported actually happened.

• At its most basic, a micro-memoir is written in sentences, drawn from personal experience, and strives to create a world in as few words as possible.
• A true hybrid, the micro-memoir strives to combine the extreme abbreviation of poetry, the narrative tension of fiction, and the truth-telling of creative nonfiction…
• What they’re not: fragments. Micro-memoirs aren’t slivers of a bigger creation. They’re designed to stand alone…
• Forget about the big memories, like meeting your beloved or witnessing a tragedy.
• Consider memories that you retain without understanding why.

• https://brevitymag.com/where-to-publish-flash-nonfiction/
• http://memoirouswrite.blogspot.com/p/places-to-submit-flash.html

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:

• On XXXday…
• Since then…
• Since then…
• Each morning…
• I spend my whole day…
• I find myself wanting to…
• I find myself wanting to…
• I hear…
• I feel…

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

Photo credit David Whyte

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

Flow Writing

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/

• The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton
• Sunday, February 2, 10:30 – 16:30.
• €30, booking through the Glens: (071) 9855833
• https://glenscentre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873607199,

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/

Details, Dates, PayPal links: monicacorish.ie/workshops/

Writing: the Art and the Craft – – Fortnightly on Tuesdays 

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. 

Just Write – – Fortnightly on Wednesdays      

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 available

Saturday 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.

Poetry: the Art and the Craft

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.

Fortnightly on Thursdays 7 – 10 PM

If you’re interested 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

Women Writing Together – – Fortnightly, Wednesdays, 7 – 9:30 PM

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

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

• Bealtaine: Sun May 26 2019, 10:30 – 16:30
• Lunasa: Sun, Aug 11 2019, 10:00 – 18:00
• Samhain: Sun, Nov 3 2019, 10:30 – 16:30
• Imbolc: Sun, Feb 2 2020, 10:30 – 16:30

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.

• Tuesday evenings: ‘Writing: the Art and the Craft’, for writers of fiction, memoir and creative non-fiction
• Wednesday evenings:  ‘Women Writing Together’, for beginners, and for women who want to explore their writing voice.
• Thursday evenings: ‘Poetry: the Art and the Craft’

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:

• a new series of workshops on Thursday evenings: ‘Poetry: the Art and the Craft’
• my regular Tuesday workshops: ‘Writing: the Art and the Craft’, for writers of fiction, memoir and creative non-fiction
• plus my regular ‘Women Writing Together’ workshops on Wednesdays

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

Writing: The Art and the Craft – Tuesdays – Kinlough, Co Leitrim

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

Women Writing Together – Wednesdays – Kinlough, Co Leitrim

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

Writing: The Art and the Craft – Tuesdays – Kinlough, Co Leitrim

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

Women Writing Together – Wednesdays – Kinlough, Co Leitrim

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?

Poetry Masterclass; Fighting Words; The Art of Awareness; Literary Lunch; Wild Atlantic Writers; and lots, lots more… Book all events through Eventbrite. More info at www.allinghamfestival.com

• Friday, 10:30 – 11:30 Fighting Words Information Session, with Sean Love – for anyone interested in learning about Fighting Words, the free creative writing programme for students of all ages in Ireland.
• Friday, 11:30 – 12:30: Fighting Words Volunteer Training, for those who have already completed the application process – if you are interested in applying in time for this training, please email donegal@fightingwords.ie
• Friday, 13:30 – 15:30: The Art of Awareness: A Creativity Workshop for Adults, with Olive Travers
• Friday, 16:00 – 17:30: Wild Atlantic Writers, with Mick Delap, Winifred McNulty, Monica Corish and Enda McGloin.
• Saturday, 9:00 – 12:00: Poetry Workshop with Moya Cannon: “Stitching the Inner and the Outer World Together”. This workshop is aimed at those who have been writing poetry for some time – places limited to 10. Participants are asked to send two pieces of work to allinghamfest@gmail.com before October 31st.
• Saturday 12:30 – 15:00: Literary Lunch in Nirvana: Splendid Food; Jim Keane Flash Fiction Award; Allingham Poetry Award; launch of “Grace” by Paul Lynch
• Saturday 15:30 – 17:00: Mike McCormack, author of “Solar Bones”, in conversation with Sinead Crowley, RTE Arts and Media Correspondent.
• Saturday 19:00 – 20:00: History Ireland Hedge School: William Allingham – “An Irish poet but not a national poet”? Moderated by Tommy Graham, editor of History Ireland.

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.

Paul Lynch, Irish writer.

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.