Cushendun
Bernie McGill, Author, Live and Interactive
On ZoomCushendun Big Arts Weekend in association with the John Hewitt Society hosts a live event via Zoom with author Bernie McGill on Saturday 1st May at 5pm BST. Bernie is the author of two novels and one short story collection. 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. Sleepwalkers was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize in 2014. From 2018 - 2020 Bernie was Writing Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund (RLF) at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen's University, Belfast. She works as a Lector with the RLF and as a mentor and facilitator with the Irish Writers' Centre. Her new short story collection will be published in 2022. Send questions on Bernie's books, or on writing and publishing in advance to info@cushendunbpt.org or pop them into the Chat via the live event. Book via this link.
Cushendun Writing Workshop and Trail
Old Church Centre, Cushendun 1 Church Lane, Cushendun, United KingdomJoin Bernie McGill for a writing workshop with a difference, featuring a walking trail exploring the literary links in Cushendun MAXIMUM PARTICIPANTS: 10 As part of our Causeway Creative Trails exploring culture and arts across the borough, join facilitator Bernie McGill for a writing workshop with a difference, featuring a walking trail that explores the literary links in the historic conservation village of Cushendun. The workshop will offer prompts and writing exercises to initiate ideas and will use as inspiration the work of writers with associations with the village including Louis MacNeice, Moira O’Neill and John Masefield. Participants will have the option to find a spot outdoors to write, weather permitting, or at a social distance indoors in the beautifully refurbished Old Church Centre. The group will come together to share work. Dress for the weather and in comfortable walking shoes and bring writing materials. There are a number of places in the village available for lunch, or bring a packed lunch along. Meet at Cushendun Old Church at 10.30am. 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 […]
Writing Workshop, Old Church Centre, Cushendun
Old Church Centre, Cushendun 1 Church Lane, Cushendun, United KingdomAs part of Culture Month, Cushendun Old Church Centre is hosting a writing workshop with author Bernie McGill. 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. Booking for the Writing Workshop is via the Old Church Centre website. *Please note that Bernie will read from her Rathlin island novel The Watch House at […]
Reading from The Watch House by Bernie McGill at the Old Church Centre, Cushendun
Old Church Centre, Cushendun 1 Church Lane, Cushendun, United KingdomAs 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, awash in old rituals and impending transformations, in loyalties and enmities and […]