Culture Night at the Irish Writers' Centre 25-09-09

Culture Night at the Irish Writers' Centre

The Irish Writers' Centre is opening up its doors this Friday for culture night (the 25th of September), with readings throughout the night, tours of the building and a chance to see the beautiful collection of paintings on loan from Frank Buckley. To add to the occasion the centre will be selling hundred of its books for a song – prices will start at 2euros.

The first readings will begin at 7.30pm and will be hosted by the Thornfield Poets. Among the line up is Catherine Dunne, Susan Connolly, Cecilia McGovern, Maggie O'Dwyer, Helena Nolan, Colette Connor, and Enda Coyle-Greene.

Sapphire Writing Group will then host the second wave of readings from 9pm. The line up includes many writers who frequent the Centre, like Phyl Herbert, Sile Agnew, Cathy Sweeney, Richard Stevens, Sheila Purdy, Gerry Moloney, Mary Heneghan and Ross Skelton.

There will be lots of staff on hand to show you around, caffeinate you and give you the lowdown on the courses and events that will be taking place in the Irish Writers' Centre in the coming months.

So do come admire the art, the ceilings, the walls of books and listen to some readings, or simply sit in the beautiful building in Parnell square and enjoy a coffee.

IWC Innovates

IWC Innovates

The Irish Writers’ Centre has announced a more innovative and varied line-up of courses and events for the Autumn programme.  Upcoming courses include The Novel with Juliet Bressan, Finish Your Novel with Conor Kostick, Reading as Writers with Nessa O’Mahony, Learn to Write Poetry with Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Poetry Workshop with Alan Jude Moore, Writing Children’s Fiction with Siobhán Parkinson, Writing Memoir, Autobiography and Personal Essay with Lia Mills, and Writing the Short Story with Michael J Farrell.

The line-up also includes some interesting new courses like Making Radio: A Guide to Presenting Your Ideas On Air taught by Susan Cahill, Writing and Touring a Successful One-person Comedy Show with Abie Philbin Bowman, Turning a Story into a Screenplay with Michael O’Loughlin, Telling your Story with Brendan Nolan, and Writing and Singing your own Lyrics with Larry Beau.

Courses will be taught by established writers, a comedian, a musician, and a radio producer.  Some courses run over several weeks while others take place on a weekend.  They cater for all levels and skill sets.  In addition to the courses, the Irish Writers’ Centre hosts information days on getting published; the next one is Finding a Publisher and How to Sell the Book that you Write (November 7th).

This month for Culture Night (September 25th) the centre will open its doors all night and will host a series of readings.  Members of the public will be free to come in and listen to the readings or simply enjoy the artwork (the Frank X. Buckley collection) that adorns the walls.  Also in September, IMRAM will be hosting several events in the centre, such as an Irish language screenwriting workshop taught by Ailbhe Nic Giolla Bhrighde from TG4 (September 19th).

 

Further Details on New Courses

Making Radio: A Guide to Presenting Your Ideas On Air is taught by Susan Cahill, a Radio Producer with Newstalk 106-108 fm. Susan has produced a range of high profile news and current affairs programmes for Newstalk including The Right Hook with George Hook and The Wide Angle presented by Karen Coleman. Susan has been nominated for a range of prestigious radio awards and currently produces Talking History and Sunday with Norris.

Comedian Abie Philbin Bowman will be teaching Writing and Touring a Successful One-person Comedy Show.  This course will cover all the elements of writing and touring a one-person show: concept, title, structure, narrative arc, marketing pitch, finances, publicity and touring opportunities.  Abie Philbin Bowman’s shows Jesus: The Guantanamo Years and Eco-Friendly Jihad, have sold out in Edinburgh for three years running and received rave reviews and attracted phenomenal media attention (over 30 outlets including The New York Times, Le Monde, and BBC News). He has also toured throughout Ireland and the world including: The Galway Comedy Festival, Monaghan’s Flat Lake Festival, London’s West End, Jimmy Tingle’s ‘Off Broadway’ Theatre and the World Performing Arts Festival in Pakistan.

Screenwriter and Poet Michael O’Loughlin will take you through the process of Turning a Story into a Screenplay.  In this ten-week course he will look at the techniques needed to turn the story into the screenplay, breaking down each into its key components. He will analyse the different kinds of structure in story and screenplay, as well as characterisation and plot, using some well-known examples.  Michael O’Loughlin’s film For My Baby/Goodnight Vienna, starring Alan Cumming and Frank Finlay, won the Golden Calf Award for Best Dutch Film in 1997. His most recent film is Snapshots, starring Burt Reynolds and Julie Christie.

Larry Beau kicks off the weekends on Friday nights with his course on Writing and Singing your own Lyrics.  The class looks at combining structure and melody, styles and traditions, tempo and rhythm before delving into ideas like the aesthetic of language, the chanson tradition, lure and romance and finally will give some hands on performance training and the opportunity to record some songs.  Larry Beau is an annual performer with the Dublin Fringe Festival, he has performed live on TV3, TV4, and RTE Radio 1. RTE Radio 1 featured his Oscar Wilde Tribute song Dandy Blues in association with Fringe Festival 2009 and his lyrics have been published in literary magazine The Stinging Fly.  His second album I Dream of Tiger Rose is released this year with 3 short music-movies, one of which was directed by Oscar nominee Daniel O’ Hara.

For more details check out www.writerscentre.ie