Launch of Belfast Stories Anthology at Belfast Book Festival
Crescent Arts Centre 2-4 University Road, BELFAST, United KingdomJoin Doire Press for the launch of Belfast Stories, a collection of short fiction set throughout the neighbourhoods of the city, written by both established and emerging writers who live in or have a strong connection to Belfast. Edited by Paul McVeigh and Lisa Frank. The writers in Belfast Stories include: Linda Anderson, Lucy Caldwell, Jan Carson, Wendy Erskine, Jamie Guiney, Peter Hollywood, Caoilinn Hughes, Rosemary Jenkinson, Winnie M Li, Bernie McGill, Michael Nolan, David Park, Glenn Patterson, Ian Sansom, Dawn Watson and Shannon Yee. The anthology also features photos and background information on each neighbourhood, as well as local listings and a map displaying where each of the stories takes place. The preface and photos are by Malachi O’Doherty. This launch event will include readings by some of the writers featured in the anthology, including Jan Carson, Bernie McGill, Dawn Watson and Shannon Yee, among others, and will be launched by Damian Smyth.
In conversation with Éilís Ní Dhuibhne at Belfast Book Festival: Twelve Thousand Days, A Memoir Of Love And Loss
Crescent Arts Centre 2-4 University Road, BELFAST, United KingdomTwelve Thousand Days is the poignant memoir of a marriage of 30 years between renowned writer Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and folklorist Bo Almquist. In the aftermath of Bo’s death, Éilís wrote about love and grief, capturing the beauty of a relationship that spanned decades whilst also illuminating the complexities and compromises of being in love. This love story between Éilís and Bo is interlaced with observations on Irish life, culture and morality. Éilís Ní Dhuibhne has published over twenty-five books, including six collections of short stories, several novels, books for children, and plays. She has won three Bisto awards, an IBBY award, a Readers’ Association of Ireland award, several Oireachtas awards for novels in Irish, and the Butler Award for The Dancers Dancing, which was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize. In 2015 she was awarded the Irish PEN award for her outstanding contribution to Irish literature, and in 2016 she was given a Hennessy Hall of Fame award for lifetime achievement. She is a member of Aosdána, an ambassador for the Irish Writers’ Centre, and President of the Folklore of Ireland Society (An Cumann le Béaloideas Éireann). Join Éilís in conversation with Bernie McGill as they discuss writing, memoir […]
Novel Writing: First Chapters with Bernie McGill at the John Hewitt International Summer School
Market Place Theatre, Armagh Market Street, Armagh, Armagh, United KingdomBernie McGill will take the Novel Writing: First Chapters workshops at the John Hewitt International Summer School at the Market Place Theatre, Armagh, on Monday 22nd, Tuesday 23rd and Thursday 25th July from 2.45pm-4.45pm on each of the three days. In response to audience feedback, we have extended the duration of our popular creative writing workshops to two hours per class and provided space in the Summer School programme for workshop participants to work on their creative writing outside of class time. Each workshop runs over three sessions and class sizes are kept to 15 or fewer to ensure everyone gets a chance to participate. Participants should attend all three workshop sessions. Our seven tutors are all experienced facilitators and published authors. For the full workshop schedule, including Short Story with Heather Richardson, Flash Fiction with Jan Carson, Memoir Writing with Ferdia MacAnna, Poetry with Siobhan Campbell, Poetry with Kathryn Maris, and Getting Started with Nessa O'Mahony, as well as full details of all Summer School events go to the John Hewitt Society website. Spaces are limited – advance booking is essential. To book Novel Writing: First Chapters go to the Market Place Theatre website or telephone the Box Office on 028 […]
Scribes at the Duncairn with Bernie McGill, Natalya O’Flaherty and Danny Morrison
Duncairn Cultural Arts Centre Duncairn Avenue, Belfast, United KingdomThis free event with wine reception (from 6.30pm) is part of the Feile Belfast 2019 programme. There will be readings from each of the three writers and a Q&A, chaired by Marnie Kennedy, as well as an opportunity for questions from the audience. Marnie is Shared Reading facilitator and coordinator of Stories@theDuncairn, a volunteer-led, community literature project in North Belfast. For more information, Tel. the Duncairn on 028 90 747 114 or turn up on the evening. No booking required. Bernie McGill is the author of two novels, The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House (shortlisted for the Irish European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and of Sleepwalkers, a collection of stories shortlisted in 2014 for the Edge Hill short story prize. She has been published in the UK, the US and in translation in Italy and the Netherlands. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies Belfast Stories, The Long Gaze Back, The Glass Shore and Female Lines. She is the Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow, based at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University, Belfast. Amazing spoken word artist Natalya O’Flaherty has shot to national prominence with bravura performances at the National Concert Hall and Electric Picnic, appearing twice on The Late […]
Author Visit – Bernie McGill – Carrickfergus Library
Carrickfergus Library 2 Joymount Court, Carrickfergus, County Antrim, United KingdomJoin Us in Carrickfergus Library for this special author visit! Bernie McGill's publications include novels The Butterfly Cabinet (2010) and The Watch House (2017) and a short story collection, Sleepwalkers (2013), shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize in 2014. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for numerous awards and in 2008 she won the Zoetrope All-Story Award in the US. Her work has been anthologised in the award-winning collections, The Long Gaze Back and The Glass Shore and more recently in Female Lines and Belfast Stories. Booking essential - please ask in branch for more details To book contact Branch Manager Jillian McFrederick t: 028 9336 2261 e: carrickfergus.library@librariesni.org.uk
Belfast Launch of The Danger and The Glory: Irish Authors on the Art of Writing
Irish Secretariat 40 Linenhall Street, Belfast, United KingdomThe Danger and the Glory is a collection of essays, articles and short fiction from 50 Irish writers involved in the Kaleidoscope: writers@work project, in which they describe what writing fiction means to them. Published by Arlen House and edited by Hedwig Schwall, director of the Leuven Centre for Irish Studies (LCIS). Hedwig is co-editor of the series Irish Studies in Europe (ISE) and editor of Volume 8 (Boundaries, Passages, Transitions), and literature editor of RISE, the Review of Irish Studies in Europe, where she was special editor of issue 2.1 on Irish Textiles: T/issues in Communities and their Representation in Art and Literature). She is now preparing a book on Parent-Child Relations in Contemporary Irish Fiction. The collection includes Bernie McGill's article 'Meeting Mrs Thatcher', available to read online at Kaleidoscope. The Danger and the Glory is available to order online.
‘Strung on Air’: A St Brigid’s Day Celebration at Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy
Seamus Heaney HomePlace 45 Main Street, Bellaghy, United KingdomFeaturing Moyra Donaldson, Bernie McGill and Maria McManus, with music from Brigid O’Neill ‘As if St Brigid once more Had rigged up a ray of sun Like the one she’d strung on air To dry her own cloak on’ Seamus Heaney, ‘The Clothes Shrine’ As a celebration of St Brigid’s Day, HomePlace is delighted to present three of Northern Ireland’s leading women writers, reading their work alongside the beautiful music of Brigid O’Neill. Bernie McGill is the author of two novels and one short story collection and her work has been anthologised in the award-winning collections The Long Gaze Back and The Glass Shore. She is currently Writing Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast. Maria McManus is a poet and playwright. Her most recent collection is Available Light and she has published three other collections of poetry. Maria is currently a poetry mentor for the Poetry Society and the creator of Ireland’s first Poetry Jukebox. Moyra Donaldson is a poet, creative writing facilitator and editor who has published four collections. Her most recent collection, Carnivorous, was published by Doire Press in 2019. Critically acclaimed artist Brigid O’Neill is a genre-spanning […]
Her Other Language: workshop, panel discussion & readings
Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich 216 Falls Road, Belfast, United KingdomOf Mouth* is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Her Other Language: Women Writers from the North of Ireland Address Abuse and Domestic Violence, in association with Arlen House and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Edited by Natasha Cuddington and Ruth Carr. Her Other Language is an anthology of poems, stories and play extracts by women. It was conceived as a project to raise the profile of the ongoing issue of domestic and sexual violence while also giving visibllity to women in our society, and women writers in particular. On a practical level, the profit of the sales of the book will go to Belfast and Lisburn Women’s Aid refuges. To mark the launch, there will be a series of events on Friday 6th March, 2020 at Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich in Belfast. Her Other Language: POET AS WITNESS WORKSHOP with Annemarie Ní Churreáin Friday 6th March 2020, 1.30pm - 4.00pm Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, 216 Falls Road, Belfast How can a poet bear witness? In what ways can we work innovatively with history, perspective and sensitive material to craft a literary work? Using as a springboard the ideas of Lola Ridge who said: 'write anything that burns […]
‘Small Steps’
Flowerfield Arts Centre 185 Coleraine Road, PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland, United KingdomAs you may have noticed, there’s something of a dearth of public events at the moment, so I’m adding a short story extract here, as part of Flowerfield Creatives' #virtuallyflowerfield online group exhibition for which the current theme is Space. It’s from a story titled ‘Small Steps’* that I’ve adapted a little, since things have changed in the world since it was first drafted. It’s around six or seven minutes of reading time, which I reckon is about my concentration span right now. I hope you enjoy it. Huge thanks to Desima Connolly, Arts Services Development Manager for Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council for the invitation to participate in the online exhibition, and to Mary McClelland for permission to use a photograph of her embroidery here. Stay home. Stay safe. Extract from ‘Small Steps’ by Bernie McGill Our dog, Shortlegs, has a coat the colour of ploughed soil and a white bib and white socks and a white tip to her tail. Her body’s too long for the length of her legs. She looks like a big dog that’s been cut off at the knees. We got her from our neighbour, Dan, when his dog, Spritzer, had […]
Novel Writing: First Chapters at the Virtual John Hewitt International Summer School
On ZoomAs part of the 2020 John Hewitt International Summer School, Bernie McGill will facilitate 3 x Two Hour Online Workshop sessions on Novel Writing: First Chapters. The workshops will be hosted online using Zoom meeting software on the following dates. Monday 27th July 2020, 1430hrs to 1630hrs Wednesday 29th July 2020, 1430hrs to 1630hrs Friday 31st July 2020, 1430hrs to 1630hrs These workshops will look at: structuring work; writing openings with impact; creating credible characters; selecting point of view, as well as outlets for completed work. Suitable for writers who are beginning or developing a novel. Participants should prepare a 250-word synopsis of their novel in advance. Works-in-progress are welcomed. Workshop fee is £60 per person. To book go to the Novel Writing link on the John Hewitt Society page. After booking your place the tutor will email you with the meeting link a week before the workshop begins. You will require a device capable of running Zoom Meeting Software with a functioning screen, microphone, speakers and a stable connection to the internet. All workshop students are advised to test their Zoom connection prior to the workshop. Refunds will not be given for issues caused by your hardware, software or internet connectivity. Online workshops are available on […]