Bernie McGill

Ballycastle Writers Host Creative Writing Workshops with Bernie McGill and Angela Graham
2026-06-20 10:00 - 14:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Sheskburn House, Ballycastle, 7 Mary Street, Ballycastle, BT54 6QH, United Kingdom
Workshop 1 Playing with Words with Bernie McGill
Whether you write fiction or poetry or memoir or script, we all approach writing from a different angle, drawing on our varied experiences. The aims of this workshop are to try some new exercises, experiment with prompts, allow yourself to have a bit of a play and, hopefully, leave with some new approaches and material that you can work with in the future. The emphasis is on having fun with words. Leave your grown-up at home for the day!
Bernie McGill is the 2023 winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her collection This Train is For. She is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (2010). Her work has been widely anthologised and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. Bernie is a Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund and a Mentor with the Irish Writers’ Centre. Her first short story collection, Sleepwalkers was re- published in 2025 by No Alibis Press. She is an Honorary Member of the Linen Hall Library in which building her writing archive is held.

Workshop 2 The Poetry of Hope with Angela Graham
Find the brightness and share it. Avoiding the pitfalls – sentimentalism, preachiness and the superficial – we’ll see how several poets have written honestly and constructively about life as it is and we’ll write our own poetry.
Angela Graham became a full-time writer after a long career making award-winning films in documentary and drama. Angela’s poems have been published in many anthologies including the CAP Arts anthologies 2020 and 2024 drawn from entries to the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing, and in anthologies by Dedalus Press, Arachne Press, Parthian Books, four volumes of Arlen House’s Washing Windows series of Irish women’s poetry and three of The Broken Spine’s Slimline anthologies and five from Black Bough. Her poetry collections are Exposure: war, media, democracy (2026), Star (both published by Culture & Democracy Press) and Sanctuary (Seren Books). Her short story collection is A City Burning (also Seren Books).
Your chosen workshop will run from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm (including break for tea/coffee etc.)
Lunch 1.00 pm to 2.00 pm followed by a chance for participants to read out their work.
The afternoon will round up with readings by Angela & Bernie and an opportunity to purchase their books.
The cost of the workshop is £35.00 to include light lunch and refreshments.
To book email ballycastlecreativewriters@outlook.com or WhatsApp: 07921404946

Danielle McLaughlin In Conversation with Bernie McGill at Belfast Book Festival
2026-06-11 19:30 - 20:30 (Europe/Dublin) | Crescent Arts Centre, 2-4 University Road, BELFAST, BT7 1NH, United Kingdom
Award-winning Irish author Danielle McLaughlin discusses her new novel, Rituals, with Bernie McGill.
Joan is in the habit of living alone, her days shaped by rituals and routines – some ordinary, some less so. When she takes in a lodger, they must learn to negotiate everything from a shared bathroom to the hazards of global warming.
Following her acclaimed short-story collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets and debut novel The Art of Falling, Rituals is a tender, funny book about an obsessive mind – and the bravery involved in opening our hearts to change.
Danielle McLaughlin’s short-story collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets was published in 2015 by The Stinging Fly Press. In 2019, she was a Windham-Campbell Prize recipient, and won the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award. Her first novel, The Art of Falling, was published in 2021 by John Murray and was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2022. In 2023 she was a recipient of a Markievicz Award. Her second novel, Rituals, is published by The Stinging Fly Press.
Bernie McGill is the 2023 winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her collection This Train is For. She is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (2010). Her short stories have been widely anthologised, and her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. Her first short story collection, Sleepwalkers (2013), was re-published in 2025 by No Alibis Press.
Book tickets for this event on the Belfast Book Festival website.
Click here for the full programme of events at Belfast Book Festival 2026 including readings, panel discussions, workshops and publishing advice.
Many events are pay what you decide with a recommended ticket price of £12.50.

Short Story Writing Weekend with Bernie McGill at YARN, Ballycastle
2026-04-11 10:00 - 2026-04-12 15:00 (Europe/Dublin) | YARN, Ballycastle, 24-26 Ann St, Ballycastle, BT54 6AD, United Kingdom
When & Where
11th April 2026, 10 am – 4 pm
12th April 2026, 10 am – 2 pm
YARN Ballycastle, 24-26 Ann St, Ballycastle, BT54 6AD, UK
About
Have you always wanted to try writing a short story?
Do you already have an idea?
Do you write in other genres and are interested in the form?
Whether you’re a first-timer looking for guidance and inspiration or a seasoned writer seeking a fresh challenge, this Short Story Writing Weekend is for you.
Join award-winning short story writer Bernie McGill for an enjoyable weekend of participative writing that will help to get your writing on track. Please bring your preferred writing materials (pen/pencil, notebook/laptop, etc.) If you’re already working on a short story, feel free to bring a copy for workshopping. Participants will be encouraged to share their work only if they are comfortable doing so.
Saturday 11th April: 10 am – 4 pm

What is a short story? How to get started with focus on structure, character and setting.
Participants will be offered prompts and exercises to help develop their work.
There will be a lunch break, with lunch provided on the day. Tea/coffee & snacks will also be provided.

Sunday 12th April: 10 am – 2 pm

What next? What’s happening under the surface of your story? What more does it need? This workshop focuses on how to dive a little deeper and how to revise.
We’ll finish with a Q&A and information-sharing on opportunities and outlets for work.
There will be a short break mid-session. Tea/coffee & snacks will be provided.

Accommodation
For those travelling from further afield, Yarn offers gorgeous on-site accommodation, with a special discount for retreat participants. Use code BERNIE20 when booking for 20% off your stay.
Who is Bernie McGill?
Bernie McGill is the 2023 winner of the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her collection This Train is For. She is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (2010). Her short stories have been widely anthologised, and her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. Bernie was co-judge of the Edge Hill Prize in 2024 and of the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award in 2023. She is a Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund, a Mentor with the Irish Writers’ Centre and an Honorary Member of the Linen Hall Library, where her writing archive is held. Her first short story collection, Sleepwalkers (2013), was re-published in 2025 by No Alibis Press.
For full details and to book tickets please visit YARN, Ballycastle

Writing Workshop at Ballyscullion Park, Bellaghy with Bernie McGill
2026-02-28 10:30 - 15:30 (Europe/Dublin) | Ballyscullion Park, 61 Ballyscullion Road, Bellaghy, Derry, BT45 8NA, United Kingdom
Writing Workshop: Setting and Place
with Bernie McGill
at Ballyscullion Park, Bellaghy
Saturday, 28th February 2026
10.30am – 3.30pm with a break for lunch*
Join writer Bernie McGill for a one-day workshop at Ballyscullion Park on the beautiful shores of Lough Beg. The workshop will focus on writing about setting and place. This will be a practical and participative workshop with the aim of developing existing work or sparking new ideas.
Prompts and exercises will take inspiration from the garden and surrounds. All levels of experience are welcome from published writers to first-timers, poets and fiction writers alike. Participants will have the option to find a spot outdoors in the walled garden, weather permitting, and to write indoors in the historic 18th century stable block. Come with writing materials, prepared to write.
Bernie McGill is a novelist and short story writer and the winner of the 2023 Edge Hill Prize for her short story collection This Train is For. She is a Writing for Life Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund and an Honorary member of the Linen Hall Library in which building her writing archive is held. Her work has been widely anthologised and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. She works as a Writing Mentor with the Irish Writers’ Centre.
www.berniemcgill.com
*Tea and coffee will be provided. Please bring a packed lunch.
Book via Ballyscullion Park’s Eventbrite Page.
See the full 2026 schedule of writing workshops at Ballyscullion Park here.

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Mary Beckett: A Belfast Woman at Look North! Festival at the Linen Hall Library
2026-02-25 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/London) | Linen Hall Library, Belfast, 17 Donegall Square North, Belfast, BT1 5GB, United Kingdom
Born in 1926, Mary Beckett is regarded as one of Belfast’s finest writers. Widely acclaimed for her novels and short stories, especially A Belfast Woman, A Literary Woman and Give Them Stones, her work did much to capture and explore the lives and experiences of women, especially working-class women. To mark the centenary of her birth, The Linen Hall Library in partnership with Look North!, brings together two acclaimed Belfast writers, Anne Devlin and Wendy Erskine, to talk about Beckett’s work and her enduring legacy. This session will be chaired by award-winning novelist and short story writer, Bernie McGill.
Supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
This event will be hosted by The Linen Hall Library, Belfast on 25th February at 1pm. Tickets £5. Booking details here.

Launch of Literary Archive at the Linen Hall Library, Belfast
2025-11-07 13:00 - 14:30 (Europe/Dublin) | Linen Hall Library, Belfast, 17 Donegall Square North, Belfast, BT1 5GB, United Kingdom
In 2025, acclaimed writer Bernie McGill was invited to donate her literary archive to The Linen Hall Library. To mark the occasion, Hugh Odling-Smee talks to her in the library about her archive and about her writing career, from her novels The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (2010) through to her most recent publication, This Train is For, for which she won the 2023 Edge Hill Short Story Prize.
A selection of items from the archive will be on display at the event.
This event is included in the programme for the 2025 Belfast International Arts Festival. Admission is free but booking is essential. Please book here.
The 2025 Belfast International Arts Festival takes place from 14th October – 9th November and features Talks & Ideas, Music, Theatre & Dance, Visual Arts and Special Events in 30 venues across the city. The full programme is available to view here.
Supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Meet the Author: Bernie McGill at Suffolk Library, Belfast for Book Week NI
2025-10-23 15:00 - 16:30 (Europe/Dublin) | Suffolk Library, Stewartstown Rd, Belfast, BT11 9JP, United Kingdom
Join award-winning writer Bernie McGill at Suffolk Library in Belfast on Thursday 23rd October (3pm) for readings and reflections on her evocative fiction. Known for her lyrical style and deep sense of place, Bernie’s work has touched readers across Ireland and beyond.
Bernie McGill is the author of novels The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House and of the short story collections Sleepwalkers and This Train is For which won the prestigious Edge Hill Prize in 2023. She is an Honorary Member of the Linen Hall Library in Belfast in which building her writing archive is held.
This is a free event but booking is advisable. Contact Suffolk Library on 028 9050 9235
Email suffolk.library@librariesni.org.uk
Book Week NI takes place this year in libraries across Northern Ireland from Monday 21st to Sunday 26th October 2025. For events near you, check out the Libraries NI website.

The John Hewitt International Summer School 2025
2025-07-28 - 2025-08-02 | Market Place Theatre, Armagh, Market Street, Armagh, Armagh, BT61 7BW, United Kingdom
The much-celebrated John Hewitt International Summer School will run in 2025 from Monday 28th July – Saturday 2nd August at the Market Place Theatre & Arts Centre in Armagh. The theme this year, inspired by John Hewitt’s poem ‘The Colony’ is ‘Our country also: difference and belonging’. The Summer School will feature writing workshops, author readings and talks, panel discussions, exhibitions and evening performances, as well as an open mike and creative writing showcase. The full programme is available at the John Hewitt Society website.
Bernie McGill will facilitate the Short Story Writing workshops taking place on Monday 28th, Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 31st July from 2.45 pm to 4.45 pm. (Attendance is required at all three workshops. Fee: £75.) Full details and booking at the Market Place Theatre.
Bernie will be in conversation with internationally acclaimed author Tessa Hadley at the Market Place Theatre, Armagh on Friday 1st August at 1.30pm. Tessa Hadley has penned eight novels including Accidents in the Home (longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award) and more recently, The Past, Late in the Day and Free Love. She has published four short story collections: Sunstroke, Married Love, Bad Dreams and After the Funeral which won the 2024 Edge Hill Short Story Prize, following her previous win with Bad Dreams in 2018. Her most recent book, The Party, was published to critical acclaim at the end of last year. She won the Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction in 2016, and The Past won the Hawthornden Prize for 2016. (Tickets £12.) Booking and details at the Market Place Theatre.
Tickets are available for all individual events; daily tickets are priced at £45; weekly tickets (excluding workshops) are £240; weekly tickets (including a workshop course) are £305.
Bursary applications for the John Hewitt International Summer Scheme covering admission to all events and workshops are open until Wednesday 14th June. Full bursaries include accommodation. Half-bursaries without accommodation are available to those from the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (ABC) Council Area. For full information on eligibility and how to apply visit the John Hewitt Society.
See you there!
Bernie McGill is the 2023 winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her collection This Train is For, published by No Alibis Press. Her first short story collection Sleepwalkers, originally shortlisted for the Edge Hill, has just been republished by No Alibis, now including a new short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4. She is the author of two historical novels: The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House.

Writing Workshop with Bernie McGill at Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy*
2025-06-28 10:30 - 13:30 (Europe/Dublin) | Seamus Heaney HomePlace, 45 Main Street, Bellaghy, BT45 8HT, United Kingdom
*This workshop is now sold out.
Join Edge Hill Prize-winning writer Bernie McGill for a workshop in the Moyola Hall and Sensory Garden at Seamus Heaney HomePlace. This will be a practical workshop on the craft of writing with the aim of sparking ideas for new work. Prompts and exercises will take inspiration from the words, sights, sounds and smells of the garden and surrounds.
All levels of experience are welcome, from experienced writers to first-timers, poets and fiction writers alike. Participants will have the option to find a spot outdoors in the Sensory Garden, weather permitting, or indoors in the Moyola Hall. Come with writing materials, prepared to write.
10.30 am – 1.30 pm
Booking opens on 23rd April at 10am at this link.

Writing Workshop with Bernie McGill at Dromore Book Festival
2025-05-05 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Dromore Book Festival, c/o Bridge Books, 3 Bridge Street, Dromore, Co. Down, BT25 1AN, United Kingdom
Have you always wanted to write but didn’t know where to start? Or have you been writing for a while and find yourself in need of a little creative workout? This workshop aims to flex your writing muscles through exercises, prompts and suggestions that will help to get you started, strengthen your writing practice or develop your work in a new direction.
All levels of experience welcomed, from seasoned writers to first-timers, poets, memoirists and fiction writers alike. Come with writing materials, prepared to write.
Suitable for 16yrs +
Bernie McGill is the 2023 winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her collection This Train is For (published by No Alibis Press). She is the author of two novels: The Watch House and The Butterfly Cabinet and of one previous short story collection, Sleepwalkers which is due to be republished in 2025. Her work has appeared in a number of award-winning anthologies and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. Bernie works as a Mentor for the Irish Writers’ Centre and is a Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund.
Cost: £20. To book visit Bridge Books on Ticket Source.
The first Dromore Book Festival is hosted by Bridge Books Dromore and features a stellar line-up of events including Crime Queens Liz Nugent, Sharon Dempsey and Hannah King; an evening with Donal Ryan; Brian McGilloway in conversation with Stuart Neville; Brian Rowan with Mike Philpott; Claire Allen with Emma Heatherington and much more.
Full programme and booking details here.

Reading at Edge Hill University
2025-02-19 18:30 - 20:00 (Europe/Dublin) | The Arts Centre, Edge Hill University, Edge Hill University, St Helens Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 4QP, United Kingdom
The Arts Centre at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk welcomes Northern Irish short story writer and novelist, Bernie McGill for a reading from her collection, This Train is For, winning collection of the Edge Hill Prize in 2023.
Bernie will be joined by writers from Edge Hill’s Fiction Writers’ Network who will be reading new work-in-progress.
All are welcome for this celebration of stories and storytelling.
Admission £5; free to Edge Hill University students
To book, visit The Arts Centre’s event page

Mums Meet and Make: Creative Writing with Bernie McGill at Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart
2024-11-27 09:30 - 11:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Flowerfield Arts Centre, 185 Coleraine Road, PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland, BT55 7HU, United Kingdom
Wednesday 27 November | 9.30-11am
Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart
Cost: £8
With prompts and support from Bernie you’ll create a poem or piece of prose about your motherhood journey, about your baby, or about yourself. After the workshop we invite you to stay for refreshments.
This workshop is suitable for those with children under 1 who are not yet mobile or who will sit in a pram and car seat throughout.

ABOUT MUMS MEET & MAKE
This series of creative workshops is specifically designed for new parents with immobile infants under 1, giving you the opportunity to tap into your creativity, relax, and practice mindfulness.
These workshops are enriching, enjoyable and budget-friendly and offer new mums the chance to foster friendships that will last a lifetime. After each workshop, we encourage you to stay and enjoy some refreshments.
Flowerfield Arts Centre is proudly Breastfeeding-friendly and baby changing is available.
Book at this link.

ABOUT BERNIE McGILL

Bernie McGill is an award-winning novelist and short story writer and winner of the 2023 Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her short story collection This Train is For, published by No Alibis Press. Her novel The Watch House was nominated in 2019 for the Ireland/European Union Prize for Literature and The Butterfly Cabinet was named in 2012 by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year. Her first short story collection, Sleepwalkers, was short listed in 2014 for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her short fiction has been nominated for numerous awards and in 2008 she won the Zoetrope:All-Story Short Fiction Award in the US. Her work has been anthologised in award-winning collections The Long Gaze Back and The Glass Shore and more recently in The Black Dreams, Her Other Language, The Danger & the Glory, Belfast Stories and in Female Lines. She is a recipient of a number of Arts Council of Northern Ireland Awards, including an International Artists’ Development Fund Award to attend the Vittore Branca Centre at the Giorgio Cini Foundation in June 2023. She is a former Writing Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund (RLF) at the Seamus Heaney Centre and at the School of Computer Science, Queen’s University, Belfast and is a current Writing for Life Fellow with the RLF. She offers One-to-one Mentoring for fiction writers via the Irish Writers’ Centre and is available for school visits via Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools Programme.

Mums Meet and Make: Creative Writing with Bernie McGill at Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre, Limavady
2024-11-20 09:30 - 11:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre, 24 Main Street, Limavady, BT49 0FJ, United Kingdom
MOMENTS IN MOTHERHOOD | CREATIVE WRITING WITH BERNIE MCGILL
Wednesday 20 November | 9.30-11am
Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre, Limavady
Cost: £8
With prompts and support from Bernie you’ll create a poem or piece of prose about your motherhood journey, about your baby, or about yourself. After the workshop we invite you to stay for refreshments.
This workshop is suitable for those with children under 1 who are not yet mobile or who will sit in a pram and car seat throughout.
Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre is proudly breastfeeding-friendly and baby-changing is available.

ABOUT MUMS MEET & MAKE
This series of creative workshops is specifically designed for new parents with immobile infants under 1, giving you the opportunity to tap into your creativity, relax, and practice mindfulness.
These workshops are enriching, enjoyable and budget-friendly and offer new mums the chance to foster friendships that will last a lifetime.
Book at this link.

ABOUT BERNIE McGILL
Bernie McGill is an award-winning novelist and short story writer and winner of the 2023 Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her short story collection This Train is For, published by No Alibis Press. Her novel The Watch House was nominated in 2019 for the Ireland/European Union Prize for Literature and The Butterfly Cabinet was named in 2012 by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year. Her first short story collection, Sleepwalkers, was short listed in 2014 for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her short fiction has been nominated for numerous awards and in 2008 she won the Zoetrope:All-Story Short Fiction Award in the US. Her work has been anthologised in award-winning collections The Long Gaze Back and The Glass Shore and more recently in The Black Dreams, Her Other Language, The Danger & the Glory, Belfast Stories and in Female Lines. She is a recipient of a number of Arts Council of Northern Ireland Awards, including an International Artists’ Development Fund Award to attend the Vittore Branca Centre at the Giorgio Cini Foundation in June 2023. She is a former Writing Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund (RLF) at the Seamus Heaney Centre and at the School of Computer Science, Queen’s University, Belfast and is a current Writing for Life Fellow with the RLF. She offers One-to-one Mentoring for fiction writers via the Irish Writers’ Centre and is available for school visits via Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools Programme.

Writing for Wellbeing with Tanya Gillen and Bernie McGill
2024-10-05 15:30 - 17:30 (Europe/Dublin) | The Arcadia, Portrush, East Strand, Craig Vara, Portrush, BT56 8JE
Join yoga teacher Tanya Gillen and writer Bernie McGill in the beautiful surroundings of the Arcadia, Portrush in this taster session that will combine somatic exercises with writing prompts to aid mindfulness and wellbeing. Whether you’re a practicing writer looking for inspiration or a complete novice, this is an opportunity to relax and write freely. This will be a seated workshop with some gentle movement. Wear comfortable clothing and bring writing materials. No other equipment needed. No previous experience of yoga or writing required. Suitable for 16+. For more details on events happening at Swell Festival the weekend of 3rd – 6th October 2024 see the Swell Facebook Page.
Numbers limited. To book, visit Eventbrite. Tickets £6.13 (including booking fee).

Scribes at the Duncairn: Bernie McGill, Jan Carson & Paul McVeigh chaired by Marnie Kennedy
2024-08-09 18:30 - 20:30 (Europe/Dublin) | Duncairn Cultural Arts Centre, Duncairn Avenue, Belfast, BT14 6BP, United Kingdom
Featuring Paul McVeigh, Bernie McGill & Jan Carson at Duncairn Arts Centre, Duncairn Avenue, Belfast.
Chaired by Marnie Kennedy, Shared Reading facilitator. This event is hosted by Stories@theDuncairn, a volunteer-led, community literary project, in partnership with the Greater New Lodge Community Festival and Féile an Phobail. Café at the Duncairn open for tea, coffee and refreshments. Wine Reception. All welcome!
Doors open at 6.30pm

Paul McVeigh’s short stories have been in numerous anthologies including ‘Being Various’, ‘The Art of the Glimpse’ and ‘Common People’. They have also been printed in ‘The London Magazine’, ‘The Stinging Fly’ and ‘The Irish Times’, on radio at BBC 3, 4, 5; RTE 1, and Sky TV. His ten-part short story series, ‘The Circus’, appeared on BBC Radio 4 in 2023. Paul co-founded the London Short Story Festival and is associate director of Word Factory, ‘the UK’s national organisation for excellence in the short story’ The Guardian. Paul’s debut novel, ‘The Good Son’, won The McCrea Literary Award and The Polari First Novel Prize. His writing has been translated into seven languages.

Bernie McGill is the 2023 winner of the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her collection This Train is For (No Alibis Press). She is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (2010) and of one further short story collection, Sleepwalkers (2013). Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. Bernie works as a Mentor for the Irish Writers’ Centre and is an Associate Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund.

Jan Carson’s critically acclaimed writings explore themes related to identity, place and belonging, but also to angst and alienation, in such works as The Fire Starters (winner EU Prize for Literature, 2019) and The Raptures. She is also very funny! About her latest collection of short stories, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses, the Irish Times said: ‘Long after the reader has closed the book, these tales linger in the mind: vivid, original and moving.’

Short Story Writing with Bernie McGill at the John Hewitt International Summer School, Armagh
2024-07-22 14:45 - 2024-07-25 16:45 (Europe/Dublin) | Market Place Theatre, Armagh, Market Street, Armagh, Armagh, BT61 7BW, United Kingdom
Join writer Bernie McGill in an investigation of the short story and the ways in which short story writers can make one thing seem to cause the next. This course will offer exercises, prompts and discussion that will help you to develop and revise your work within a community of fellow writers. Come with an open mind, prepared to write.
This course will take place during the John Hewitt International Summer School at the Market Place Theatre, Armagh. Workshops are scheduled for Monday 22nd, Tuesday 23rd and Thursday 25th July 2024 from 2.45 pm to 4.45 pm and cost £70 in total. Participants should attend all three sessions. All levels are welcome. Spaces are limited – advance booking is essential.
To book go to the Market Place Theatre.
Bernie McGill is the 2023 winner of the prestigious Edge Hill Prize for her short story collection This Train is For. Her first collection, Sleepwalkers, was shortlisted for the prize in 2014. She is the author of two novels (The Butterfly Cabinet (2010) & The Watch House (2017)) and is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.
For the full programme of the John Hewitt International Summer School taking place from Monday 22nd to Saturday 27th July 2024, including workshops, readings, panel discussions, performances and art exhibitions visit The John Hewitt Society.

Taster Workshop: Short Story Writing with Bernie McGill
2024-02-24 10:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Women’s TEC, 29 Chichester Ave, BELFAST, BT15 5EH, United Kingdom
Focus on Short Story… with Bernie McGill, a workshop for the North Belfast Festival 2024
In this short participative creative writing workshop, you will be offered a number of prompts and writing exercises to help get you started on (or help you to develop) your own short story. Come with an open mind, prepared to write.
Bernie McGill is the author of two novels (The Watch House and The Butterfly Cabinet) and two short story collections (This Train is For and Sleepwalkers). She is the 2023 winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize for This Train is For (No Alibis Press). www.berniemcgill.com
This event will take place at the Women’s TEC, 29 Chichester Avenue, Belfast, BT15 5EH. Cost: £5. To book go to Taster Workshop on the North Belfast Festival website.
For the full programme of the North Belfast Festival (23rd – 25th February 2024), including tours, exhibitions, talks, performances and workshops visit Look North! The North Belfast Festival.

This Train is For by Bernie McGill wins the 2023 Edge Hill Short Story Prize
2024-01-19 23:30 - 2025-01-19 23:30 (Europe/Dublin)
This year’s winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize is Bernie McGill with her short story collection This Train is For, published by No Alibis Press.
Now in its 17th year, The Edge Hill Prize is the only annual UK-based award to  recognise  excellence in a single-authored short story collection, with a first prize of £10,000.
Bernie McGill is the author of two novels, The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House, and two collections of short stories, Sleepwalkers and the Edge Hill prize-winner This Train is For (No Alibis Press).
The judges for this year’s prize were the winner of last year’s award Saba Sams; Lucy Luck, agent at C&W Agency, and short story writer and Edge Hill creative writing lecturer Andrea Ashworth.
The winner received her award at a ceremony at the London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury. She said: “It’s such an honour to have won the Edge Hill Prize. I’ve been reading the winning collections for years. I’m a huge fan of the short story, as both a reader and as a writer. When working on the longer form gets challenging, I sneak off for a philander with the short form. I love the intensity of it, and I love the buzz of finishing one.”
Naomi Booth was the winner of the £1,000 Reader’s Choice Award for her collection Animals at Night (Dead Ink Books).
Will Clark, a student on the Edge Hill MA in Creative Writing, won the prize for best short story submitted by a student.
Five collections made the shortlist, namely:

Total by Rebecca Miller (Canongate)
Love in the Time of Chaos by Rosemary Jenkinson (Arlen House)
Cat Brushing & Other Stories by Jane Campbell (Riverrun)
Animals at Night by Naomi Booth (Dead Ink Books)
This Train is for… by Bernie McGill (No Alibis Press)

Founded in 2006, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize attracts entries from new and established writers. Professor of short fiction Ailsa Cox founded the award to highlight the “artisanship of short-story writing” and acknowledge the wealth of published collections available.
Previous winners of the award include Sarah Hall, David Szalay, Tessa Hadley and Kevin Barry.

Bernie McGill’s award-winning stories have been widely praised for their emotional depth and lyrical language.
She is a writer of profound sensitivity and observation whose masterful deployment of linguistic precision and economy enables her to plumb the depths of human experience while neatly avoiding sentimentalism.
This new collection, the first since 2013, contains unpublished stories along with a number of previously published stories contained within award winning anthologies.
This Train is For is available from No Alibis Books.

Michelle Gallen in Conversation with Bernie McGill
2023-12-13 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Linen Hall Library, Belfast, 17 Donegall Square North, Belfast, BT1 5GB, United Kingdom
The critically acclaimed author of Big Girl, Small Town and Factory Girls, Michelle Gallen, joins us at The Linen Hall Library for an insightful conversation with Bernie McGill about her work. Fresh from her well-deserved Comedy Women in Print prize, Michelle will delve into how her characters’ narratives are intricately shaped by her deep connection to place, rural life, Northern Ireland politics, and her unique life experiences.
Copies of the book will be available to buy on the evening of this event.

ABOUT MICHELLE GALLEN
Michelle Gallen was born in Northern Ireland in the mid-1970s and grew up during the Troubles a few miles from the border between what she was told was the “Free” State and the “United” Kingdom. She studied English literature at Trinity College Dublin, then survived what doctors now suspect was autoimmune encephalitis in her mid-twenties. Her debut novel, Big Girl, Small Town was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. Her critically acclaimed second novel, Factory Girls, was published in 2022. She now lives in Dublin with her husband and kids.
About Bernie McGill
Bernie McGill is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (named by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year in 2012). Her most recent short story collection, This Train is For, was published in 2022 by No Alibis Press and has just been shortlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize. Her first collection of stories, Sleepwalkers, was shortlisted for the prize in 2014 and she is a former winner of the Zoetrope:All-Story Short Fiction Award in the US. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies The Black Dreams, Her Other Language, Belfast Stories, The Long Gaze Back, The Glass Shore and Female Lines.
Book tickets at the Linen Hall Library.

(SOLD OUT) Between the Lights: Writing Workshop with Bernie McGill at Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy
2023-11-25 10:30 - 13:30 (Europe/Dublin) | Seamus Heaney HomePlace, 45 Main Street, Bellaghy, BT45 8HT, United Kingdom
The Celtic festival of Samhain traditionally marks the end of the lighter half and the beginning of the darker half of the year. It was believed that at this time, the division between this world and the otherworld was at its thinnest, allowing spirits to pass through. As we head into the darker weeks of the year you are invited to join us for a half-day writing workshop around the theme of passing between the lights.
This will be a practical workshop on the everyday craft of writing with the aim of sparking ideas for new work. Open to all from experienced writers to first-timers, poets and prosers alike. Come with writing materials, prepared to write.
Bernie McGill’s latest publication is the short story collection This Train is For, long listed in July 2023 for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize, published by and available from No Alibis Press.
Bernie is author of The Butterfly Cabinet, The Watch House and the short story collection Sleepwalkers (shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize in 2014). She is an experienced facilitator and mentor and an Associate Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund.
Book this workshop on the Seamus Heaney HomePlace website*
Full programme of events at Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Autumn/Winter 2023.
*Please note this workshop is now sold out but you may add your name to the waiting list.

FREE Writing and Walking Workshop at Artlink Fort Dunree, Buncrana, Co. Donegal
2023-11-12 10:30 - 13:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Artlink Fort Dunree, Fort Dunree, Buncrana, Co. Donegal, F93 C424, Ireland
10.30am-1pm Sunday 12th November 2023
Join writer Bernie McGill for a writing workshop that takes inspiration from the history and natural environment of the site at Fort Dunree that overlooks Lough Swilly and the North Atlantic. This workshop will offer prompts and writing exercises to initiate ideas and will use as inspiration the works-in-progress in the Saldanha Gallery, created by the artists and makers who have been working in response to the Sea Change project. We will also use as inspiration the work of writers from across these islands who have written in response to the sea. Participants will have the opportunity (weather permitting) to explore the site and to write in response to their surroundings at Fort Dunree. Dress for the weather and in comfortable walking shoes and bring writing materials, preferably a hardback notebook (or equivalent) for note-taking outdoors.
This is a free workshop but numbers are limited. To book email info@artlink.ie
Initiated through partnership work with ARTLINK Fort Dunree during 2023, Sea Change offered three Causeway-based artists and three Donegal-based artists the unique opportunity to work collaboratively to explore our shared cultural heritage of living and working along this stunning island coastline – from the creative inspiration it provides to artists, to our maritime heritage and also the current environmental crisis and its impact on coastal communities.
Sea Change is a long-term project which we hope will ultimately result in an ambitious touring exhibition potentially involving three venues/organisations on the island of Ireland – Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre, Artlink and a venue yet to be identified.
In this pilot four-month project, all six artists met on-site at Artlink Fort Dunree to discuss their individual practice, discover mutual creative connections and influences and also collaborated through various mediums including technology and postal artwork/writings.
From 8-15 November, the group present elements of their ongoing project work at Artlink with a day of public participation on Sunday 12 November.
For full details of the Sea Change Project Showcase featuring artists Cliodhna Timoney, Nicola Nimec, Cathal McGinley, Andrea Spencer and Tim Stampton follow this link to ARTLINK Fort Dunree.

This Train is For by Bernie McGill is shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize
2023-09-20 - 2024-01-20 | London Review Bookshop, 14-16 Bury Place, London, WC1A 2JL, United Kingdom
This Train is For by Bernie McGill, published by No Alibis Press, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize, awarded annually by Edge Hill University for excellence in a published single authored short story collection. This is the second time that Bernie’s work has been shortlisted: her first collection Sleepwalkers was shortlisted in 2014.
This year the judges for the prize are Lucy Luck (Agent with CWA), last year’s winner Saba Sams, and Edge Hill University lecturer and short story writer Andrea Ashworth. They will decide the winner between these wonderful shortlisted collections. Follow the links for interviews with the authors:

Total by Rebecca Miller (Canongate)
Love in the Time of Chaos by Rosemary Jenkinson (Arlen House)
Cat Brushing & Other Stories by Jane Campbell (Riverrun)
Animals at Night by Naomi Booth (Dead Ink Books)
This Train is for… by Bernie McGill (No Alibis Press)

The literary world, particularly fiction, has long been dominated by the novel. To recognise the acceleration of what was once an overlooked art form, Professor Ailsa Cox (the world’s only Professor of Short Fiction) founded the Edge Hill Short Story Prize in 2006, highlighting the intricate craftsmanship of short story writing. The Prize remains unique as the only annually presented award that recognises excellence in a published, single-authored collection of short stories in the UK and Ireland.
Now in its 17th Year, the prize money currently stands at £10,000 and is judged by a selected panel of literary experts. An additional prize of £1,000 is awarded for the ‘Reader’s Choice’, traditionally judged by Edge Hill University BA (Hons) Creative Writing students. An additional category worth £500 acknowledges rising talents on the University’s MA Creative Writing course.
Previous years’ winners have been Colm Tóibín, Claire Keegan, Chris Beckett, Jeremy Dyson, Graham Mort, Sarah Hall, John Burnside, Kirsty Gunn, Jessie Greengrass, Daisy Johnson, Tessa Hadley, David Szalay, Shelley Day, Kevin Barry and last year’s winner Saba Sams.
The winner will be announced at an event in the London Review Bookshop on 19th January 2024, 6.3opm – 8.30pm. Spaces are limited but if you’d like to come and hear the writers read from their shortlisted collections please RSVP asap to Lyndsey Skeaping: 25201158@edgehill.ac.uk.

Focus on Short Fiction with Bernie McGill at the John Hewitt International Summer School 2023
2023-07-24 14:45 - 2023-07-27 16:45 (Europe/Dublin) | Market Place Theatre, Armagh, Market Street, Armagh, Armagh, BT61 7BW, United Kingdom
A hands-on, fully participative writing workout that allows you to explore the writing of short fiction, to consider where your strengths as a writer lie and who you’re writing for. Wherever you are on your writing journey, from beginners who are not sure how to proceed, to more experienced writers open to new ways of working, this course will offer exercises and prompts that will help to develop your work in new directions, within a community of fellow writers. Come with an open mind, prepared to write.
Bernie McGill is the author of two novels (The Watch House and The Butterfly Cabinet) and two short story collections (This Train is For and Sleepwalkers). Her work has been widely anthologised and has been produced by BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. She is an Associate Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund.
These workshops at the John Hewitt International Summer School in the Market Place Theatre, Armagh, run on Monday 24th, Tuesday 25th & Thursday 27th July 2023 from 2.45pm – 4.45pm. Participants should attend all three workshop sessions. Spaces are limited – advance booking is essential. Book this workshop at the Market Place Theatre Box Office.
Full information on events and workshops at the 2023 John Hewitt International Summer School here.

Flex Your Writing Muscles
2023-02-25 10:30 - 14:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Burnavon Arts & Cultural Centre, Burn Road, Cookstown, BT80 8DN, United Kingdom
Have you always wanted to write but didn’t know where to start? Or have you been writing for a while and find yourself in need of a little creative workout? This workshop, led by author Bernie McGill, aims to flex your writing muscles through exercises, prompts and suggestions that will help to strengthen your writing practice and develop your work in a new direction.
All levels of experience welcome, from seasoned writers to first-timers, poets and fiction writers alike. The workshop will be fully participative with participants taking part in writing exercises and sharing their work with other group members. Come with writing materials, prepared to write.
There will be a short break for lunch (please bring your own).
Suitable for 16y +
Bernie McGill is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (named by Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year in 2012). Her collection of short stories, Sleepwalkers, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize in 2014. Her new collection, This Train is For was published by No Alibis Press in 2022.
Book for this workshop on the Burnavon website.

Book Week NI Author Panel: John Self hosts Bernie McGill and Wendy Erskine
2022-10-20 18:45 - 2022-10-22 20:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Chichester Library, 109 Salisbury Avenue, Belfast, BT15 5EB
*This event is now available to view online.
Renowned international literary critic John Self will host a panel with authors Bernie McGill and Wendy Erskine to discuss their recent short story collections This Train Is For and Dance Move, and the importance of the short story genre.
Bernie McGill is the author of two novels, The Watch House, (2017, Tinder Press), nominated for the Ireland/European Prize for Literature, and The Butterfly Cabinet, (2011, Headline Review), and one previous short story collection Sleepwalkers, (2013, Whittrick Press), shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her short fiction has been nominated for numerous awards and in 2008 she won the Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Award in the USA. Her work has been anthologised in award-winning collections including The Long Gaze Back, The Glass Shore, Her Other Language, The Danger & the Glory, Belfast Stories, and Female Lines. She has been the recipient of numerous Arts Council of Northern Ireland Awards, and is a former Writing Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University, Belfast. She now works as a Lector and Associate Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund, and offers One-to-one mentoring via the Irish Writers’ Centre. This Train is For was published by No Alibis Press in June 2022.
Wendy Erskine lives in Belfast. Her debut collection, Sweet Home, was published by The Stinging Fly Press in Sept 2018 and Picador in 2019, has been translated into Italian and Arabic and optioned for TV. It won the 2020 Butler Literary Award, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize 2019 and longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2019. The story ‘Inakeen’ was longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Prize 2019. Sweet Home was Book of the Year in the Guardian, The White Review, Observer, New Statesman, and TLS. Wendy’s second collection of stories, Dance Move, was published in February 2022. Her work has been published in The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers, Female Lines: New Writing from Northern Ireland and Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber) and read on BBC Radio 4.
This event will be both in person and streamed online. Booking is essential. To book a place in the audience tel. 028 9050 9210 or email: chichester.library@librariesni.org.uk
To book a place for the live stream email: events@librariesni.org.uk
To download the full programme of events for Book Week NI, including talks by Serena Terry, Leesa Harker, Professor Teresa Cremin, Colin Bateman, Rev. Richard Coles, Donal Ryan, Steve Cavanagh and Stuart Neville visit Libraries NI.

In Conversation with novelists Nuala O'Connor and Martina Devlin at Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy
2022-10-16 14:00 - 15:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Seamus Heaney HomePlace, 45 Main Street, Bellaghy, BT45 8HT, United Kingdom
Join writers Nuala O’Connor and Martina Devlin for a discussion about their historical fiction novels based on the lives of real people. Nuala O’Connor’s novel Nora tells the story of Nora Barnacle, one of the world’s most famous muses, bringing her out from behind the shadow of James Joyce. Nora was named a Top 10 2021 historical novel by the New York Times and was the One Dublin One Book choice for 2022.
Martina Devlin’s new novel Edith: A Novel is set during the War of Independence and focuses on Edith Somerville, who was one-half of Irish writing sensation Somerville and Ross. Writing with her cousin Violet Martin, she produced some of Ireland’s most celebrated literary works, such as The Real Charlotte in 1894 and The Irish RM stories, which have stayed in print for more than a century.
Nuala and Martina will be in conversation with novelist Bernie McGill to explore historical fiction, responsibility to the past and the celebration of fascinating women.
Book via Seamus Heaney HomePlace.

FLive Book Club with Bernie McGill and This Train is For at Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen
2022-10-08 14:00 - 15:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen, 97 Dublin Rd, Enniskillen, BT74 6FZ, United Kingdom
Whether you are an avid reader and in a book club, or have no time to read and are simply looking for inspiration then come and join us for the FLive Book Club at the Ardhowen Theatre Studio, Enniskillen.
To take part read Bernie McGill’s newly published collection of stories, This Train is For (released by No Alibis Press on 1st June 2022), within your book club or individually, then buy a ticket for the FLive Book Club and come and chat with Bernie*.
Book online for FLive Book Club on the FLive Festival website.
*Bernie will facilitate a Creative Writing Workshop at the Ardhowen Theatre Studio from 10 am – 12 noon on Saturday 8th October. Full details and booking on the FLive Festival website.

Praise for This Train is For:
‘This Train is For portrays the complexities of the heart with sensitivity and acute psychological insight. Rendered in the most perfect prose, Bernie McGill presents lives in physical and emotional transit, uncertain of the journey’s destination, understanding that sometimes the most important moments in our lives involve travelling not forward, but to moments we thought we had left long behind.’ David Park
‘Bernie McGill is one of the most accomplished short story writers in Ireland today. These stories contain powerful truths and unsettling revelations, delivered in the gentlest voice. An absolute joy of a collection from start to finish with not a word wasted or misplaced.’
Jan Carson
‘Wonderful stories of journeys geographical and of the inner kind.’ Bernard MacLaverty
‘Bernie McGill brings her precise, lyrical, deceptively quiet style to these stories in a collection that gleams. This Train is For is the work of a decade, and it shows; each story burnished; and a book that’s a beautiful addition to No Alibis Press.’ Lucy Caldwell
‘This Train is For is a dazzling exercise in compression, and an exemplification of what the short story form can achieve.’
Neil Hegarty, Fortnight Magazine

‘Beneath the exquisite surface – at once lyrical and plain-spoken – of each of these stories is carried a great freight of feeling that McGill handles with humanity and restraint. An excellent collection from one of the finest short story writers working in Ireland today.’ Louise Kennedy
‘Derry-born Bernie McGill’s second collection of stories has been eight years in the making, and it was worth the wait. There’s a welcome wit peppering the stories… closing lines that satisfy while leaving enough open to keep the reader thinking. It’s a rare achievement that McGill makes look easy. But the best story might be the last, In the Interests of Wonder, which takes an illusionist’s visit to a school and invests it with sinister strangeness. It reminded me of Thomas Mann’s great allegory of power and credulity, Mario and the Magician, and I can offer no higher praise than that.’
John Self, Irish Times
‘Bernie McGill’s new book of short stories is a collection of quiet majesty, featuring 12 perfectly crafted stories, all exploring moments of transition in the lives of the lost and the lonely. With a compassionate skill, these stories are like arrows in flight; we do not know where they have started from, or where they will land but the journey itself is what is important.’
Cathy Brown, Dig With It Magazine
‘The past returns unbidden in Bernie McGill’s artfully unsettling This Train is For, an intricately crafted collection of unexpected journeys through time and the stations of the heart. The book is a modern meditation on the inextricability of language and history in Northern Ireland, a place where the naming of things, or the not-naming of them, encodes expression with additional layers of meaning.’
Dawn Miranda Sherratt-Bado, Dublin Review of Books

Creative Writing Workshop with Bernie McGill at FLive Festival, Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen
2022-10-08 10:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen, 97 Dublin Rd, Enniskillen, BT74 6FZ, United Kingdom
Harness the power of your imagination and creative writing skills and join Bernie McGill for a 2-hour writing workshop as part of FLive Festival at the Ardhowen Theatre Studio, Enniskillen. This will be a practical workshop on the everyday craft of writing with the aim of sparking ideas for new work. Prompts and exercises will be used.
Bernie McGill is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (named by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year in 2012). Her first collection of stories, Sleepwalkers, was shortlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize in 2014. Her new short story collection, This Train is For*, was published in June 2022 by No Alibis Press.
Bernie was Writing Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund (RLF) at Queen’s University, Belfast from 2018 to 2020. She is an Associate Fellow of the RLF and works as a Lector (for Reading Round at Coleraine Library) and Writing Facilitator for the organisation, and is a Writing Mentor with the Irish Writers’ Centre. She lives with her family in Portstewart.
Book online for the Creative Writing Workshop on the FLive Festival website.
*Bernie will be at the Ardhowen Theatre Studio at 2pm on Saturday 8th October for the FLive Book Club event featuring This Train is For. Full details on the FLive Festival website.

Reading Round at Coleraine Library
2022-09-28 10:30 - 2023-06-07 12:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Coleraine Library, Queen Street, Coleraine, BT52 1BE, United Kingdom
What is a Reading Round group?
Reading Round is a unique type of reading group that differs in a number of ways from traditional-style book groups. Each group is run by a published author who has worked for at least two years in the Royal Literary Fund’s Fellowship scheme. Reading Round is funded by the Royal Literary Fund and is free for members to join.
Where and When will it happen?
The Reading Round group will meet in the Meeting Room at Coleraine Library starting again in September 2022. Provisional dates (28th September 2022 through to 7th June 2023) to be confirmed.
What’s involved?
Each week the group listens to a different piece, or pieces, of writing read aloud by the Group Lector. The piece might be a story or a poem though it might also be a speech, memoir or piece of narrative non-fiction. The group then discusses the piece(s) at some length to really try to get under the skin of the text: What effects does it have on us as we read? How does it achieve those effects? Guided by a Lector, the group considers the text in detail, looking at tone, choice of words, viewpoint, the effect of a certain image or turn of phrase, and so on. There is no extra reading or ‘homework’ to be done either before or after the sessions. No prior knowledge of the texts is necessary, or even desirable. All that is required of participants is a willingness to listen, discuss and be open to new ideas.
Who will lead the group?
Bernie McGill is the Lector for Reading Round at Coleraine Library. She was Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Queen’s University, Belfast from 2018 – 2020. Her published work includes novels The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House and the short story collection Sleepwalkers. Her new short story collection This Train is For was published by No Alibis Press in June 2022.
Why Reading Round?
The broad aim of a Reading Round group is to familiarise its members with some excellent and inspiring writing and – for those who are already keen readers – to introduce them to a wider range of literature than they might have discovered alone. Alongside this aim, it is hoped that attendance at a Reading Round group will help develop members’ critical thinking skills. As the weeks go by, group members may well find their reading habits changing: they will almost certainly find themselves noticing more; appreciating why the text has been written as it has; perhaps also becoming aware of how the writer of the text is manipulating their readers. The goal is not to agree or to arrive at a definitive reading of the text under discussion; it is to gain a deeper understanding. For many participants, the group may also provide a valuable opportunity to meet with other readers in a friendly, stimulating and relaxed environment. To get a full sense of what it is like to be a Reading Round member, watch the video on the Royal Literary Fund website: https://www.rlf.org.uk/education/reading-round/
How do I join?
Reading Round is free to join and is for anyone who lives within a comfortable travelling distance of Coleraine Library and who is aged 16+. We are looking for participants from a broad range of backgrounds. We do ask that you can commit to the 30 weeks of weekly meetings. There is a limited number of places, after which names will be added to a waiting list. To book your place, please email Bernie McGill at bernie.mcgill@rlfeducation.org.uk and tell us where you heard about Reading Round and why it appeals to you.

Reading from The Watch House by Bernie McGill at the Old Church Centre, Cushendun
2022-09-17 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Old Church Centre, Cushendun, 1 Church Lane, Cushendun, BT44 0PG, United Kingdom
As part of Culture Month, Cushendun Old Church Centre is hosting an afternoon of readings with author Bernie McGill, inspired by the North Antrim coast.
Bernie McGill’s novel The Watch House is set on Rathlin Island at the time of the Marconi telegraphy experiments in 1898. A pair of strangers arrives from the mainland, laden with mysterious radio equipment, and the islanders are full of dread. For native Nuala Byrne, abandoned by her family for the New World and trapped by a prudent marriage to the island’s ageing tailor, the prospects for adventure are bleak. But when she is sent to cook for Marconi’s men and is enlisted, by the Italian engineer Gabriel, as an apprentice operator, she becomes enthralled by the world of knowledge that he brings from beyond her own narrow horizons. As Nuala’s friendship with Gabriel deepens, she realises that her deal with the tailor was a bargain she should never have struck.
Praise for The Watch House:
‘McGill writes about life, love and telegraphy with a poet’s clarity’ The Sunday Times
‘The Watch House, set on Rathlin Island at the turn of the 20th century, [is] awash in old rituals and impending transformations, in loyalties and enmities and all manner of local witchery’ Patricia Craig, Irish Times Books of the Year

‘The book is a masterclass in how to marry narrative and setting.’ David Park, Irish Times

‘A mesmerising, clever and surprisingly brutal novel’ Belfast Telegraph

‘Hard to put down, this atmospheric book will stay with you long after the final heart-rending denouement, setting McGill firmly into the panoply of modern Irish writers’ Irish Independent
‘McGill proves once again she is a masterful storyteller . . . historical fiction at its absolute best’ The Lady
Book for this event on the Cushendun Old Church Centre website.
*Please note that Bernie will facilitate a Writing Workshop at the Old Church Centre on the morning of Saturday 17th September from 11am to 1pm. Booking details on the Old Church Centre website.
