Irish writing
Pordenone Legge Book Festival, Italy
Auditorium Istituto Vendramini Via Beata E. Vendramini, 2 33170, Pordenone, ItalyThe Italian translation of The Watch House is published by Bollati Boringhieri on 30th August 2018. Translated by Simona Garavelli, it appears under the title Le parole nell'aria (The Words in the Air). On 22nd September, Bernie McGill will be interviewed by Mary B. Tolusso at Pordenone Legge Book Festival, Italy. È l’estate del 1898 nella piccola isola irlandese di Rathlin. La giovane Nuala Byrne, non vede altra possibilità per garantirsi la sopravvivenza se non sposare l’anziano sarto del paese. Ma sull’isola sbarca uno scienziato italiano, collaboratore di Guglielmo Marconi, cui sono affidati i primi esperimenti del telegrafo senza fili. E quando Nuala verrà arruolata come apprendista, il mondo della scienza le aprirà nuovi, inimmaginabili orizzonti.
Victorian Mavericks at Red Line Book Festival, Dublin
Pearse Museum Saint Enda's Park The Hermitage Grange Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16, IrelandIn the Victorian era, women were forced to endure many inequalities in terms of marriage, finances and social status. Viewed as belonging to the domestic sphere, they were expected to provide their husbands with a clean home, food on the table and children. In this special event for Red Line Book Festival, Nuala O’Connor (Becoming Belle), Bernie McGill (The Watch House) and Caroline Busher (The Ghosts of Magnificent Children) explore the lives of Victorian female characters in their novels and the ways those women and girls defied the conventions of the time. Booking information here.
Novel Writing with Bernie McGill
The Playhouse Theatre & Arts Centre 5-7 Artillery Street, Derry, United KingdomThis 16 hour course will run on Saturday 9th & Saturday 23rd February and Saturday 9th & Saturday 23rd March 2019 from 10.00am-2.15pm each day at the Playhouse Theatre & Arts Centre, Artillery Road, Derry. In this course, participants will look at: structuring work; writing openings with impact; developing setting; creating credible characters; selecting point of view; writing dialogue; editing and redrafting; outlets for completed work. You will be invited to take part in writing exercises to further develop your work and to share your writing with other class members. Suitable for committed writers who are beginning or developing a novel. Participants should come with a 250 word outline for a novel. Works-in-progress are welcomed. Bernie McGill is the author of Sleepwalkers, a collection of stories short-listed in 2014 for the Edge Hill short story prize, and of the novels The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House. She has been published in the UK, the US and in translation in Italy and in the Netherlands. Her short fiction has appeared in acclaimed anthologies The Long Gaze Back, The Glass Shore and Female Lines, and for the theatre she has written The Haunting of Helena Blunden and The Weather Watchers. She works as a professional mentor with the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin and […]
Bernie McGill & Sheena Wilkinson – Northern Irish Fiction Event at IWHC, Manchester
Irish World Heritage Centre 1 Irish Town Way, MANCHESTERWe are delighted to welcome two fantastic Northern Irish writers, Bernie McGill and Sheena Wilkinson, to share their work at the Irish World Heritage Centre, Manchester, on Monday 1st April. Bernie McGill is the author of Sleepwalkers, a collection of stories short-listed in 2014 for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, and of the novels The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House (a story of infidelity, secrets and murder in a small Irish island community, inspired by Marconi’s experiments in wireless telegraphy in the late nineteenth century). In 2012, Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey named The Butterfly Cabinet his novel of the year. She has been published in the UK, the US and in translation in Italy and in the Netherlands. Her short fiction has appeared in acclaimed anthologies The Long Gaze Back, The Glass Shore and Female Lines (all by New Island Books, Dublin), and for the theatre she has written, The Haunting of Helena Blunden and The Weather Watchers. She lives in Portstewart in Northern Ireland with her family, works as a professional mentor with the Irish Writers’ Centre and as a Writer in Schools for Poetry Ireland. She is currently Writing Fellow with the Royal Literary […]
At Sea with Words: Creative Writing Workshop with Bernie McGill
Parochial Hall, Rathlin Island , United KingdomAs part of the Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival, author Bernie McGill is hosting a free writing workshop in the Parochial Hall on Rathlin Island on Wednesday 29th May from 11am-1pm. No previous experience required. Come with writing materials and be prepared to write. Numbers are limited. Booking essential. Please phone the Rathlin Visitor Information Centre on 028 2076 0054 to book a place. You'll find the ferry timetable between Ballycastle and Rathlin here, and if you fancy spending a night or two on the island around the time of the festival, you'll find details of accommodation on Rathlin here. The Festival runs from 24th May to 2nd June this year and there's lots on offer, from boat blessings to beach cleans, pop up crab shacks to little pirates' discos. Full programme available here. Bernie McGill is the author of The Watch House, a novel set on Rathlin Island at the time of Marconi's wireless telegraphy experiments of 1898. The Watch House has been shortlisted for the Irish/European Union Prize for Literature. ‘McGill writes about life, love and telegraphy with a poet’s clarity’ The Sunday Times ‘McGill proves once again she is a masterful storyteller . . . historical fiction at its […]
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.
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 […]