Category Archives: Poetry and Story, Landscape and Myth

Poetry and Story Inspired by Myth: The Cailleach

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

CailleachShe 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?

 

What do “The Song of Wandering Aengus” and “The Twilight Saga” have in common?

FULL To go on a cancellation waiting list, please email me   Writing Workshop: Poetry and Story Inspired by Myth: Saturday, August 19, 11 am – 5 pm. Star of the Sea, Mullaghmore, Co Sligo. Places limited to 12, early booking advised. Cost: €75 / €65 if received by August 12.  For more info go to monicacorish.ie/workshops

Yeats’ poem and Stephanie Meyer’s’s novels were both inspired by myth and legend, fable and fairytale – by the collective dreams that have helped humanity come to terms with an unpredictable world since the beginning of human time.

The list of writers inspired by myth goes on and on: Margaret Atwood in “The Handmaid’s Tale”; Carol Ann Duffy in “The World’s Wife”; Philip Pullman in “His Dark Materials”; WH Auden in “Museé des Beaux Arts”; JK Rowling in the Harry Potter stories; William Allingham in “The Fairies”; Salley Vickers in “Miss Garnett’s Angel”…

Perhaps you think that you don’t know enough about myth to participate in this workshop? You do – from school, from home, from pop culture, we all grow up learning ancient and fabulous tales. Some, such as Queen Maeve and the Táin, were written down; others – of fairy rings and púcas, selkies and changelings – were handed down at bedtime from grandparent to child; and others are alive and buzzing in our minds from watching last night’s television.

In this writing workshop we will read extracts from myth-inspired writing, and craft our own versions of the myths that engage us. You don’t need to do any preparation– just come along with your pen and notebook, and a willingness to be surprised at your own imagination and inventiveness. The workshop will be led by Monica Corish, an inspiring and encouraging Amherst Method certified writing group leader, and an award-winning writer of poetry, short stories and memoir.

Writing Workshop: Poetry and Story Inspired by Myth

As part of the Stoneywoods Festival: Kiltyclogher Library, 1 – 3:30 pm, Saturday, July 1.

Kiltyclogher – Coillte Clochair, the Stoney Woods – sits halfway between the enigmatic Prince Connall’s Grave and the splendidly named Black Pig’s Dyke. It is the perfect place in which to learn from poems and stories inspired by myth, and write your own.

The workshop will be led by Monica Corish. €20, pay at the door – places limited to 16.