Detailed Information
Keeping it Short(er)
This course is designed for people who are excited by the idea of saying more (much more) with less. It is ideal for beginners in creative writing who might be intimidated by the blank page, or anyone interested in editing and streamlining their work. As this is a continuation of the first course, more emphasis will be given to producing new work. A selection of short stories, poems and various triggering exercises will offer ways for exploring language and distilling experience. Group discussion will play an important part in these sessions. Please note that this course is frequently updated with fresh material, so both newcomers and former participants) are welcome.
6 Tuesdays @ 19.30 - 21.30 pm
Jan 26, Feb 02, 09, 16, 23, Mar 02
A Book of Luminous Things Edited & commentaries by Czeslaw Milosz (Harcourt/Brace, USA)
The Rattle Bag Edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes (Faber)
The School Bag Edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes (Faber)
Emergency Kit Edited by Matthew Sweeney and Jo Shapcott (Faber)
101 Sonnets Edited with an introduction and commentaries by Don Patterson (Penguin)
The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story Edited by Anne Enright (Granta);
The New Granta Book of The American Short Story Selected and edited by Richard Ford;
There Are Little Kingdoms and Dark Lies The Island stories by Kevin Barry,
Taking Pictures stories by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape),
Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie (Sort Of Books, 2012)
and any collection of stories by Alice Munroe, Joyce Carol Oates, Claire Keegan, Katherine Mansfield, Ernest Hemingway, Shirley Jackson, Graham Greene, Elizabeth Bowen, Flannery O’Connor, Sean O’Faolain and Frank O’Connor.
Mark Granier has an MA in Poetry/Creative Writing from Lancaster University and has been teaching creative writing for UCD’s Adult Education Department for several years. He has also facilitated many popular and successful writing workshops and masterclasses for Listowel Writers' Week, The Irish Writers' Centre and various schools and colleges over the years. His poetry has appeared in numerous outlets, including The Irish Times, The TLS, The New Statesman, Poetry Ireland Review and the UK Poetry Review. Many of his poems have been broadcast by RTE and Lyric FM. Awards include the (UK) New Writer Prize, a number of Arts Council Bursaries, The Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize and two Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowships. His fifth collection of poetry, Ghostlight: New & Selected Poems, was published by Salmon in 2017.
• sentence structure and rhythm
• avoiding clichés
• writing and memory
• the epiphany
• the short short story
• writing for Twitter
• flash fiction
• prose styles
• autobiography/memoir/ making use of fragments
• poetry: haiku & imagery, parallelism, lineation, etc.
• prose poems
• some advice regarding publication
At the end of the course students should be able to:
Outline the essentials of writing good short fiction, including (e.g.) basic structure and dialogue.
Evaluate whether a piece of fiction works in terms of characterisation, plot (or lack of), POV, etc.
Discuss a piece of short fiction, essay, memoir or poem with a fair degree of objectivity, considering the writer's use of language, avoidance of cliche, etc.
Explain why a story, poem, essay, etc. works or doesn't for him/herself.
Discussion, and feedback. Triggering exercises. Home assignments. Sampling and comparing of work by published writers.