Priced very fairly,( €175 for the 8-week series) and happening in the nicest most hidden-away cafe in town, this course will fill quickly. If you’re interested, please get in touch soon! Extra-fair fee for these last few places on enquiry (!), and course is capped at 12.

Having run three lovely courses at the National library in the last few months I can also say it is a real and inspiring treat to write – and to be –  in that building, and in that part of town. And if you love the city, watch out for my next series of Write In The City workshops and Dublin cultural tourism experiences, coming up from the start of June.

So, dates at a glance for new courses are as follows:
National Library Cafe Joly Saturdays: START DATE: 18th Feb, NLI Kildare Street, D 2.
Kickstart Tuesdays, 10 weeks, START DATE: March 6, United Arts Club, D 2.
Wednesday Morning Writing Train: continuous enrollment, United Arts Club, D 2.Thursday Night Advanced Writing Train, City Arts, D. 1, new 15-week term STARTS: 29 MarchFriday Night Kick-starts, Glasthule – continuous enrollment

Write In the City Dublin writing experience – 7 week course START DATE: June, NLI.

Developing Poet 8-week Saturday workshop will start 14th April in Sweny’s Chemist’s Shop.
Monday Night Start to Write – starts April 23rd, City Arts, D.1.

Next Inishbofin Jaunt takes place on May Bank Holiday…on Inishbofin. It is good to have me on the team, isn’t it?

And on that note: prettier and more profound posts will follow when my book is done, I hope! Meantime, I urge you, too, to cut the odd corner in your admin/ worklife so that you have a few more minutes for the writing. Go on! I dare you! Or the house-cleaning… Didn’t Quentin Crisp say it doesn’t get any dirtier after the first ten years?

Contact me on writingtrain@gmail.com and at 086 1701418 for further info and to book any of the above courses.

Looking forward to hearing from and working with you!
Yvonne

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:

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.”

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!

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.

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!

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.

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/