Newsflash on up-coming courses.

NEWSFLASH

If you haven’t yet signed up for an autumn writing course, here are a few current options at Writing Train!

“START TO WRITE” MONDAYS: 9 session option from Nov 4th, City Arts Centre. 6.30 – 8.30. €240.

TUESDAY DEVELOPING WRITERS: Starts 8 Nov. Sweny’s, the Ulysses’ Chemist’s Shop. 8 weeks. 6.30 – 8.45 pm. Fee: €205

FRIDAY DEVELOPING WRITERS: 9 weeks’ option from 4th November, Glasthule, Sandycove, in my home, where all the books are! 9 weeks spread over 14. 7 pm- 9.15. Tuition, workshopping, support and a BYO indoor picnic venue for Friday evenings! Fee €240

DEVELOPING POET workshop, 11 weeks from Nov 5th, €295.

WRITE IN THE CITY workshops at CAFE JOLY, NLI: FOUR SPACES AVAILABLE FOR  4 weeks option from 12.30 – 3 pm running across a working lunch-break, and starting 5th November. Fee €100.

WRITE IN THE CITY writing and city culture events: 5 weeks from November 26th, see NLI tab on this blog for details

Dec 9 -12th Winter Bofin Jaunt Writing Weekend and Writing Retreat plus St. Patricks’ Weekend 2012, Inishbofin Jaunt Writing Weekend both booking now!

And if you’re not linked in with the writing train facebook page, or are morally opposed to fb ; ), here’s a thought I posted there last night:

Yvonne Cullen’s Writing Train

We’ve been talking, in the classes and workshops, about how to relax in your writing. Relaxed concentration – that’s the thing, I think, really! So try writing somewhere relaxed. Designate a comfortable old cardigan or jumper your writing uniform, and put it on each time you’re about to start writing. Write on the fly. I’ve just been writing standing at the bar counter in my kitchen. Rilke-style : ). ( The standing, not the writing, I add quickly : ). Or write somewhere so noisy that you’ve full excuse for writing badly. Then write badly and “mend it good.”

We take our creative discussions seriously, here at Writing Train…

 

A great little out-take from a session on Bofin. You’ll note some group members and friends avoiding the cross-fire between Annie on the left and myself on the right!

And if that doesn’t scare you – the next Bofin Writing Jaunt is on 14 October!

A note to add to the new timetable also just gone up here: WEDNESDAY MORNING WRITING TRAIN workshop start-date is 12th October!

And finally, because I want to mention it everywhere: Helena Nolan, longtime Writing Train workshop member, has won the Kavanagh Poetry Prize. Joint Second Prize went to another longtime Writing Train participant and equally gifted poet – Cliona O’Connell. I’m absolutely delighted!

 

 

 

 

Write In The City launches at the National Library!

Creative writing classes with Yvonne Cullen at Cafe Joly, National Library of Ireland

Introducing the most central, the most culturally located, the most caffeinated, and the tastiest creative writing classes, writing workshops and ‘Dublin- inspired’ creative writing experiences in town!

 

Autumn courses, classes and events:

Beginning on 22 October, for five consecutive Saturday mornings: Writers’ Workshop at Cafe Joly, National Library of Ireland 10 a.m. to noon. Fee: €125

 

Also from 22 October onwards for five consecutive Saturday lunchtimes: Teen Writers’ Workshop at Cafe Joly 12.30 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. built around a short ‘working lunch-break.’  Fee: €125

 

All classes are capped at ten participants.

 

WRITE IN THE CITY: The creative writing course inspired by the culture and fabric of Dublin city and by your Dublin stories. Comprising five Saturday sessions taking place on 26 November; 3 and 10 December; 7 and 14 January from 10 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. Tuition, discussion and readings of Dublin-inspired writing, visits to inspiring Dublin cultural locations, and convivial lunch at Cafe Joly accompanied with further creative writing guidance. You will also be given additional challenges to take away each week during this inspiring, fun and surprisingly intensive course. Fee for the five-week course: €250.  Also on offer for groups (by arrangement) are ‘Write in the City’ one-day events.

 

January 2012 plans:

Ten-week Saturday Morning Writing Workshop for Adults with some experience of writing. From 10 a.m. to noon. Fee: €240. Ten-week Saturday lunchtime Teen Writing Workshops from 12.30 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. Fee: €240. These courses will run from 28 January until early April 2012. Details of additional one-off, short afternoon sessions for Spring 2012 will be announced on the NLI website and on www.yvonnecullen.wordpress.com. Details also available by contacting writingcity@gmail.com or by calling 086 170 1418.

 

All classes are ‘capped’ at ten participants.

 

“…the best creative writing teacher in Dublin: her mission not to produce one Nobel Prize-winner and eleven nervous wrecks, but a happier, healthier relationship with your creativity.” Abie Philbin Bowman, The Dubliner Magazine. “Writes beautifully, and can pass on the skill.” Grace Garvey, The Irish Times

 

 

About Yvonne Cullen

Yvonne Cullen has taught writing in Ireland for twenty years. She is an award-winning poet and screenwriter.  Her first non-fiction book, SHOWTOWN is a love letter to Ireland’s Travelling Shows,  and the story of a unique Showpeoples’ neighbourhood here in Dublin.  SHOWTOWN will appear early in 2012. Yvonne is also working on a related TV documentary called WANDERING STARS.

 

THE WRITING TRAIN DIFFERENCE: Beginners’ and specialist courses from

tutor with outstanding track record and results.  A long-term writing  workshop option for developing writers. Stay as long as you need to!

A focus on your potential.

Regular writers’ parties and reading events where everybody makes the party!

Always-fair fees.

Lovely city centre venues plus

further classes in core tutor’s welcoming and book-filled home in Glasthule beside Sandycove Dart Station.

 

Next Inishbofin Jaunt writing holiday runs 14 – 17 Oct!

What was it like on your Inishbofin Jaunt?

The next WRITING TRAIN Inishbofin Jaunt will take place on 14-17 October. A fiction and non-fiction Jaunt for beginner and developing writers – a  small number of places are still available, with self-catering and B and B accommodation options. Please get in touch soon if interested!

To contact Writing Train

You can email me at Yvonnesworkshops@gmail.com. If you are enquiring about courses, it’s writingtrain@gmail.com. And you can phone me, Yvonne, about anything related to Writing Train classes, workshops and events at 086 1701418 or at 01 2806431.

What’s the difference between Writing Train workshops and Writing Train Beginners’ classes?

WRITING TRAIN WORKSHOPS and WRITING TRAIN BEGINNERS’ CLASSES: the distinctions.

Writing Train’s Intermediate workshops ( Tuesday nights, starting next week, 23rd AUGUST for a short burst of 5 weeks) are great for people who are either (a) ready to get going on some work they’ve been meaning to start,  (b) have taken a class before and feel some confidence in their writing, or (c) are folks who sense that a class that’s somewhat mixed experience-wise  will inspire them more than a group where everyone is simply starting.

In the Intermediate Writing Train sessions I can divide the time between helping each person who has a special interest, and teaching areas of craft to everyone, plus giving feedback on work that people are starting to produce, or  are getting on with.  Forthcoming set of 5 Tuesday nights will run at SWENY’s CHEMIST’s WESTLAND ROW and carry a fee of €145.

If you’re a little, or a fair bit beyond beginner, I would most recommend the short run of Tuesdays as a ‘try out.’ There will be an option for a follow on term of a further 8-9 weeks till the end of the year, working with some of the short-term group plus some newcomers.
The perfect way to try the Writing Train. 

BEGINNERS’ CLASSES

Writing Train Beginners’ Classes  -  next one starting Mon 19 September -  will work best for people who want to start from scratch identifying their material and the forms they like by writing under direction and ‘reading as writers’ in class and at home, as well as touring through elements of the craft of all the short forms of writing under my guidance. Next set of Mondays will run at CITY ARTS CENTRE, BACHELORS’ WALK from Monday 19 Sept for 10 weeks and cost €250.

 ADVANCED WRITING TRAIN WORKSHOPS

are aimed at Advanced writers who want  feedback and support while they continue work-in-progress, or writers looking for deadlines and feedback while they challenge themselves to write a certain amount every week. Discussion and technical help will be tailored to each project, and the feedback of a group of experienced and supportive peers will be a great bonus in your Advanced Writing Train workshop.  

Next round of Advanced Workshops at Writing Train will be starting Wednesday Daytime  September 21st,  at United Arts Club, Fitzwilliam Street,

Thursday nights at City Arts Bachelors’ Walk, September 22nd

each course: 14 sessions and €340.

Wednesday fortnightly Advanced Writing Train will be starting in Dublin in late October.

With any queries, email writingtrain @gmail.com or phone writing train on 086 1701418

Writing Train writers read at the WRITING SALOON!

Here’s a blast from last winter in Sweny’s Chemist’s, Westland Row, on one of the sixteen Saloons we’ve run for emerging writers at Writing Train since May 2010!
Audio clip available from the bauld Regan Hutchins, AKA Safari Kent, radio man, at the following url. ( visible at end of this post). When I am skilled technically, I’ll be scary, but for now I’m saying: copy and paste to new browser window, thanks!

For more of this kind of atmosphere, there’ll be a mid-Autumn Saloon for sure, and if you’d like total immersion in the Writing Train Way of doing things, there’s only one thing for it – INISHBOFIN! The Writing Jaunts to Inishbofin are booking up steadily, thanks to our lovely Irish TImes mention, a very nice piece in yesterday’s Connaught Tribune, many brochures and posters around Dublin and the all-round goodness of the idea. Not to mention the fact that we’ll be based a minute’s walk from two of the most beautiful and peaceful beaches in Europe, or that I’m planning to bring the Writing Train gramophone and some Benny Goodman tunes.

Poet and gardener Carmel Ennis told me that the very pairing of the words Inishbofin and Jaunt made her feel happy! And if Carmel’s happy, I’m happy, because wasn’t it Carmel who introduced me to Paavo Haaivikko’s writing, very fitting if you were considering an inspiring trip, and whether to take it…

“And I asked the way of
the bird I am myself
and the bird replied:
leave early – soon as the leaves
burst out of night.”

And I wouldn’t normally be too keen on the “write about bird, add picture of bird” school of blogging, but this is the magical bird we’ll be out on Bofin tiptoe-ing around trying to overhear. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: the corncrake.  Now that’s a bird really worthy of Regan Hutchins’ hi-tech microphone.

Bofin brochure is under BOOKING THE INISHBOFIN JAUNT tab above!

http://safarikent.com/2011/01/yvonne-cullens-writing-train-at-swenys/

In Inishbofin Jaunt mode, a little Bofin piece from me!

On Bofin

I catch my jumper

on the table’s split

veneer

Outside the window

the whisper of rainwear.

 

Is it just when

you don’t belong,

kids’-clothes-coloured

fishing weights scatter

by a door

 

as if you’ve come here

to play?  Wind, open our

eyes. Sea, broaden

this peace.

A short bio note on Writing Train guest tutor Anthony Glavin

Brief bio on Anthony Glavin, guest tutor on Bofin Weekend No. 2. An editor of ‘New Irish Writing’ in the Irish Press, long-time Commissioning Editor for New Island Books, Tony’s acclaimed first novel, Nighthawk Alley, and two short-story collections, One for Sorrow and The Draughtsman and The Unicorn, have been followed by inclusion in more anthologies than I could list here. Suffice to say they include The Faber Book of Irish Short Stories 2006/7.

Those are the hard facts. Other things you need to know include the following note: I rarely bring guest tutors in to Writing Train. I’m bringing Anthony to Inishbofin because he is a truly wonderful teacher and one of nature’s utter gentlemen. For knowledge and generous geniality I can hardly think of a writer / teacher I’d rate more highly ( except for the others I invite betimes to teach at Writing Train: novelist Yvonne Cassidy and poet Mark Granier). So that’s Anthony!

And here he is in full flow!

“Sailing To An Island”…and writing on one too…

The Inishbofin Jaunts get a lovely mention in today’s Irish Times.

And so I’m thinking today about what it feels like to take off from your usual life in order to have some time for yourself – putting down your burden for a while, as Charles Wright has said it…What will happen?

On the Inishbofin trips I’ll aim for you to open up a box of new and exciting creative skills. And more importantly – and this is where Inishbofin itself will do some of the work for me, and for us all –  I’ll hope for you that the trip will give you time to think about the creativity you want in your life, and about how you are going to create the space for it. The way the groups and events are shaping up for both weekends as well – I don’t feel I need to be a fortune teller to tell you you are going to have a ball if you come along with us!

Here, in celebration of the good times on Bofin ahead on our two weekends of 2 – 5 and 9-12 SEPT, is a little poem out of my notes from my own last trip west to CUIRT and Bofin in April. And your mission, if you’re coming to Bofin and you choose to accept it, will be to scribble some travel notes of your own on the road down as well – ‘dictation from yourself’ on how the travelling is feeling!

Heading west 

 

Still so glad to be on this road, the same

Barred-gate-lover, frieze-of-hawthorns –lover

tussocky –field- lover, one-crow-lover

Happy here and happier over there

The same piece of grit, worked and moved

Inside this mother-of-pearl day.