Calling all curious visitors!

On Saturday, December 5th 's Open Day, IWC's big navy door will be wide open so that curious people can come in and have a look at our building.

Open Day is the perfect opportunity to discover what actually goes on at the Centre. The idea behind the event is to promote the courses and activities that take place here.

There are numerous literary activities planned for the day. The day starts at noon with Tiger Tales, a cosy get-together at our reception room table. Over mugs of tea and coffee, participants are invited to share their favourite poem or short story.

At one o'clock, Eileen Casey and Keiran Furey will give a free reading. Both writers have won numerous awards for their poetry and prose.

There will be an informal creative writing hour called The Rag and Bone Shop after a W. B. Yeats poem. This informal workshop starts at 3 pm and is led by the interns. We promise to get your creative juices flowing.

At 4 pm, Jack Harte, accomplished prose writer and IWC chairman, will give a short talk about the Centre, its history and its future. One of our tutors will also talk about the merits of creative writing courses.

Catherine Morris, IWC's writer-in-residence, will give a presentation on Alice Milligan at quarter to five. Morris is writing a book about the Irish poet and her research will be displayed in our illustrious reading room.

In the evening, there are two final activities: an open mike at 5 pm and a table quiz at 7 pm. Anyone is welcomed to take the podium for the open mike. Teams of four are needed for the literary table quiz. There are some great prizes to win: the top prize being a bundle of new shiny books from Easons.

Open Day is jam-packed with things to do, but people don't have to be super keen to enjoy the day. Everyone is invited to browse the library and inspect our art collection.

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