Courses and Workshops thread [post any course/workshop info here]

Rathmines College runs two 10-week series of courses per year. In each series there are two levels: Creative Writing (Monday nights from 7.30 to 9pm) and Creative Writing, Continuation (Monday nights from 6 to 7pm) - http://www.rathminescollege.ie/our-courses/part-time-evening-courses/part-time-evening-courses
These are heavily craft-based courses, with classes on narrative, dialogue, settings, point of view, etc.
They're not expensive; Rathmines College is locally based and keeps costs down as much as possible for students.
Six students who attended these classes won awards in the SCC Creative Writing Contest last year, and this year a magazine of students' work was produced.
The courses are for hobby writers. They are backed by email circulation of students' stories so people can read and think about stories before hearing them in class. Stories are generally read aloud by someone other than the writer, so that writers can hear their work as it is experienced by another, and so that the readers can experience telling a story by someone else. Co-critiques concentrate on the craft aspects of stories, with suggestions on how to make a story better by moving or re-expressing dialogue, changing character aspects and tightening point of view and narrative structure. Students often return in subsequent terms for the continuation course having started in the creative writing course.

Rathmines College is enrolling for all its evening courses (which run on Monday and Tuesday nights) tonight and tomorrow night, starting at 6pm; see post above for details of the two creative writing courses.

The union's AGM will be held at the Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Square Dublin 1, from 11am, Saturday 28th March. The guest speaker will be Nicola Solomon CEO of the Society of Authors, the UK's foremost writers' organisation, and, following refreshments, Irene Graham, a leading Irish writing coach, will be hosting a workshop.

Nicola Solomon was named one of Britain’s 500 most influential people in the Debrett’s/Sunday Times list 2015.

They say Nicola is "... an exceptionally important voice in protecting authors’ rights in a difficult industry. A solicitor by trade, Solomon has been an outspoken advocate for authors’ interests at this increasingly important institution in negotiations and disputes with publishers and agents. Before joining the Society of Authors, where she has been since 2011, she was a solicitor at leading media firm Finers Stephens Innocent, specialising in intellectual property and media law. She studied Law at the University of Warwick and is consistently high up in the Bookseller 100 list of the most influential names in the book trade"

The SoA has been serving the needs of authors since 1884. It is a membership organisation representing over 9,000 professional writers from all sectors and genres.

The SoA lobbies on issues of interest and importance to the whole publishing industry including supporting copyright and opposing exceptions, reforming defamation laws and supporting libraries. They use the voices of authors, particularly well-known authors such as president, Philip Pullman. Recent campaigns include the Books for Prisoners campaign which saw the Chair of the Management Committee, Anne Sebba, spend a night in the cells to publicise the cause and the limiting of short stories on BBC radio 4.

The SoA act as literary representative for the estates of distinguished writers including Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf, Philip Larkin and E. M. Forster.

Irene Graham, founder of The Creative Writer’s Workshop studied many genres of writing (Fiction Writing, Autobiographical Writing, Screenwriting, and Writing for Children) in the UCLA extension programme in Los Angeles in the late 80’s. Throughout this same period on the West Coast Irene studied and trained in complementary methods of learning – particularly cognitive learning skills (Howard Gardner – Multi-Intelligences) and Psycho-synthesis in Education (Roberto Assagioli). Following this study period Irene founded The Creative Writer’s Workshop, which is now an internationally renowned course and retreat for new and established writers.
In 2009 The Memoir Writing Workbook was published, which is based on Irene’s writing techniques.
In 2012 Irene launched The Memoir Writing Club, an online interactive writing community.

All writers are welcome to attend the event, which will run to approximately 3:30.

Hey, are there any places left on the poetry course with Jessica Traynor? I have a query regarding it, where is best to ask?

Five writers (and counting, not all the results are in) from Rathmines College's basic and continuation creative writing courses have won prizes in the SCC (City of Dublin Education and Training Board's Sports and Cultural Council) Contest this year; six won last year.